The Chinese government is one international player that benefits from the recent struggle between Russia and the United States over the Ukraine crisis, an analyst says.
In an article published by the Russian International Affairs Council, Artyom Lukin, who is deputy director for research at the School of Regional and International Studies, Far Eastern Federal University, explained that China “stands to gain from the recent turn of events in Ukraine, regardless of its outcome.”
He added that the Ukraine situation can seriously poison relations between Moscow and Washington for a long time.
Lukin also noted that sanctions threatened by US President Barack Obama against Russia “will inevitably push Moscow toward Beijing, increasing the likelihood that the sides will align their policies toward the West.”
Obama said on Thursday that his country and its allies are ready to impose more sanctions if Russia does not fall in line with them over the crisis.
“Having acquired Russia as a safe strategic rear area, as well as privileged access to its vast energy and minerals base and advanced military technologies, China would feel far more confident in its rivalry with the United States for primacy in the Asia-Pacific,” Lukin wrote.
The current Ukraine situation “can well become a major step toward transforming the international order into a confrontational bipolarity, with the US-led West facing a Sino-Russian axis.”
According to the analyst, “the Western push to "isolate" Russia may prove self-defeating. Rather than forcing Moscow to withdraw from Ukraine, it will draw it closer to Beijing.”
