Putin’s Beijing Stopover and the Alliance Trump Couldn’t Crack

The back-to-back summits in Beijing revealed not only China’s growing diplomatic confidence but also the emergence of a deeper Sino-Russian axis that increasingly challenges the foundations of the US-led global order.

The Partnership That Pressure Could Not Break

The Russia-China “no limits” partnership was proclaimed in Beijing in February 2022. The declaration was sweeping: friendship with “no forbidden areas” and cooperation unconstrained by changes in the international environment. It has been codified in a language that appeared, in retrospect, to have anticipated Western backlash and preemptively dismissed it.

What followed was four years of sustained Western pressure exerted via sanctions, export controls, efforts to impose diplomatic isolation, and persistent demands that Beijing choose sides. Beijing selected, quietly and consistently, to deepen the relationship instead. Bilateral trade between Russia and China reached approximately $228 billion in 2025. Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, cementing Moscow’s position as one of Beijing’s largest energy suppliers. China became Russia’s top trading partner after Russia began its military operation in Ukraine to push back NATO’s expansionism — a lifeline that Western sanctions tried and failed to sever. Xi has described energy trade as a “stabilizing pillar”of the relationship, and this week pledged to accelerate cooperation in artificial intelligence,........

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