🇨🇳-🇷🇺 relations have almost always been marked by a certain amount of mutual distrust.
Feng and Wen's critique of Putinism is a useful reminder that both sympathisers and sceptics of 🇷🇺 most likely coexist within the confines of Zhongnanhai.
▫️ Feng Yujun (冯玉军): Director of the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, Fudan Univ. Former CICIR analyst (1994 to 2016).
▫️ Wen Longjie (文龙杰): Postdoc researcher at Fudan Dev. Institute and Chief Kazakhstan correspondent, China News Service.
🔹Summary:
1⃣ #Russia believes in the superiority of its culture and is on a Messianic mission to spread its conservative values to the rest of the world.
2⃣ Its turn towards conservatism was both a reaction against neoliberalism and a result of its failure to Westernise.
3⃣ Conservatism under #Putin and the values it supposedly upholds have no solid foundations and are more akin to a “discursive bubble” and an “empty shell”.
4⃣ #Russian conservatism is merely a tool for Moscow to advance its own political interests and gain support for its policies both domestically and abroad.
5⃣ #Moscow is also encouraging the current political polarisation of Western societies and using its status as a flag-bearer of conservatism to gain a following of sympathisers and apologists across the world.
6⃣ The “imperial logic” underlying its invasion of #Ukraine and its ambition to recover lost #Russian territories is not only alarming but has also shattered its long-advocated principle of the primacy of state sovereignty.
7⃣ If #Putin and #Russia do indeed seek to overturn the current US-led international order, then it should at least have a credible alternative to offer instead, but it does not.
8⃣ Worse, its economy, politics and society are beset with problems that have yet to be resolved. Russia has no viable development model to offer.
9⃣ The #UkraineRussiaWar has damaged Russia’s global image, undermined the appeal of its Messianic conservatism and is weakening its economic and political influence in the world.
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This is what PKU Prof. Lu Feng (路风) was saying in January about foreign companies such as #ASML complying with US #chip export controls.
EXCERPTS 🧵
1⃣ “Since the #USA has used its ‘nuclear weapon’ against China, we should strike back and use our own ‘nuclear weapon’. More specifically, the US’s method of suppressing 🇨🇳 is to control the supply of chips. Well then, [in return], 🇨🇳 should and can control the demand for chips.”
2⃣ "If the US is forcing a tech and industrial #decoupling [from #China], then we should impose sanctions on all the foreign companies that are carrying out these orders to decouple from the Chinese market.”
Fudan Prof. Jian Junbo (简军波) discusses the European Union's #StrategicAutonomy, 🇪🇺-🇨🇳 relations in 2023 and provides his government with a few suggestions.
1. Benefits the development of #EU-#China relations by freeing the EU from the influence of “third parties” (i.e. the US).
2. In line with China’s desire for a multipolar world order.
However...
3. EU strategic autonomy also has a strong anti-#China element to it.
📢 “It is a double-edged sword for 🇪🇺-🇨🇳 relations and is to a certain extent an important causal factor in the conflict over 'values' between China and Europe."
"#Beijing and #Moscow’s 'unlimited' friendship has alarmed the west. But imagine for a moment: if two countries vow to develop their friendship, then how could they place limits on it?" 2/7
"Two of Beijing’s contributions have been particularly under-appreciated. First, not adding fuel to the fire. This war has served to prove that however close #China and #Russia might be, this is not an alliance." 3/7
How is the #UkraineRussiaWar affecting the #EU's prospects? Its economy? Its place in the world?
▫️ Zhang Jian (张健): "It will further weaken the 🇪🇺's strength and int. influence and accelerate its marginalisation in the global geopolitical landscape."
🔹The author: Zhang Jian (张健) is the director of the Institute of European Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) – an influential think tank linked to China’s Ministry of State Security.
🔹Some context: Zhang’s assessment is more pessimistic than some in China, but several of his arguments are in line with those made by other Chinese analysts: e.g. the negative impact that the #war has had on the EU’s quest for #StrategicAutonomy. This is bad news for #China.