China and Russia publicly promote “no-limits friendship”
But China goes behind Russia’s back
To exploit Russia’s weakness
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Over the past decade, China and Russia have drawn closer to each other like partners in
crime against the West. Whenever you see their leaders together, it just seems like nothing
but good vibes. Daaaw, it’s nice seeing them burning something other than political dissidents.
In 2015, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladmir Putin signed over two dozen
cooperation pacts, including a memorandum not to launch cyberattacks against each other.
That’s like second base for authoritarians.
Four years later, they upgraded relations with a comprehensive strategic partnership
And in 2022 claimed “Friendship between the two States has no limits,
there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”
Why, China even asked Russia to delay the Ukraine
war till after China was done hosting the Winter Olympics.
Which would have been a big story. If anyone actually watched the Winter Olympics.
Now, to a degree, they’ve backed words with action. Trade between China and
Russia increased, especially after Russia faced sanctions from the West.
There was a $55 billion pipeline. And lots of military drills together.
That’s third base.
If you were to just read Chinese state-run media, you’d get the impression that
Sino-Russian relations are all sunshine and roses, and that it’s always been that way.
My favorite Chinese state-run media The Global Times likes to talk about how both countries
share a back-to-back partnership, meaning there’s so much trust that the two countries,
like two brothers, leave one’s own back to the other to defend.
Lots of smooth talking.
Except China is undermining Russia every chance it gets. And Russia knows it.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
Despite all the talk of China and Russia having a no limits partnership,
China is trying to undermine Russia every chance it gets.
Including by exploiting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
China is expanding its influence in Central Asia, Russia’s backyard. These are all former Soviet
countries. Independent now. Just like…Ukraine.
The invasion is making them nervous that Russia
won’t stop there. So they’re loosening ties with Russia.
Uzbekistan went so far as to support Ukraine’s independence and reject Russia’s puppet states.
Uzbekistan as well as Kazakhstan even sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
That’s like if when Kim and Kanye West got divorced, all the Kardashians supported Kanye.
Which is a perfect analogy since Kanye and Ukraine have both been
accused of being cool with Nazis.
China sees this as the perfect opportunity to swoop in and woo Central Asia.
That’s a violation of the bro code! And to think I let you get to authoritarian third base!
China is now Central Asia’s largest trading partner. Take China’s data with a grain of salt,
but it puts Chinese trade at $70 billion in 2022, compared to Russia’s less than $40 billion.
And China is currently involved in more than 90 industrial projects across the region.
Russia sees what China is doing. They’re trying to match China’s
investment but with the Ukraine war dragging out, it can’t keep up.
Putin is also trying a charm campaign. I mean, look at how charming he is.
He invited Central Asian leaders at the last minute to his May 9 Victory Day parade.
Which probably didn’t impress them, since Russia lost so many tanks in the war,
they could only afford to bring one to the parade.
Not to be one upped, a little over a week later,
Xi invited the Central Asian leaders to a meeting in Xi’an. Russia was not invited.
Xi’an was no coincidence.
It was the start of the Ancient Silk Road and the Chinese capital during the Tang dynasty,
where vassals came to pay tribute.
Can you tell what message China is trying to send?
So yeah, Russia and China might have a no limits friendship. But
now China has an everlasting friendship with Central Asia.
Along with $22 billion in bilateral agreements.
China is sending a subtle message to Central Asia: rely on us, not Russia.
In his Xian keynote, Xi said, “The sovereignty, security,
independence and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries must be upheld”
You know, from any country that might be invading former Soviet states. Not going to name names.
Though that is kind of a 180 from when China’s ambassador
to France said ex-Soviet states lacked the basis for sovereignty.
Wow, who’d have thought China wouldn’t respect
a nation’s sovereignty? Don’t answer that if you’re in Taiwan.
Central Asia obviously has a lot of good reasons
to be worried about Russia. But China might not be much better.
The region is already badly in debt to China.
For mega-projects that are falling apart.
Now Russia obviously sees what China is doing. But China says don’t worry.
Here’s you and the guys Xi tells you not to worry about.
But China is doing way more to undermine Russia. In some cases, China is outright attacking Russia.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
Russia and China have been at odds for a long time.
Guess what? China has a disputed border with Russia. China has a disputed border with everyone.
Since the 17th century, a huge chunk of land has
gone back and forth between Russian and Chinese control.
Russia currently controls it.
But earlier this year, China said all maps made in the country must
show an “accurate reflection of state territory.”
Which includes replacing Russian names with old Chinese ones on the disputed border.
Yup. Super accurate. Here’s China’s idea of an
Accurate map of the solar system.
Russia is in a major cash crunch because of
the Ukraine war. So they’ve allowed more Chinese investment in Russia’s Far East.
But maybe, China wants a little more than just the resources.
Then there’s Chinese espionage.
Despite promising a cyber nonaggression pact with Russia,
China isn’t above trying to steal Russian data.
Israeli-American cybersecurity firm Check Point uncovered an
attack on Russia by state-backed Chinese hacker groups codenamed
Stone Panda and Mustang Panda. Tip of the hat to whoever made that graphic.
The Chinese hackers targeted Russian defense institutes under Rostec Corporation . That’s
one of Russia’s largest military corporations founded by none other than Vladmir Putin .
Chinese hackers managed to spread malware by sending phishing emails labeled “list of
persons under US sanctions for invading Ukraine” with a link mimicking Russia’s Health Ministry.
Obviously, the Russians would want to click on that to see if they were under sanctions.
As far as we know, these types of attacks on Russia
are focused on stealing intellectual property.
And there’s lot of them.
Russia has accused multiple scientists of treason for leaking military tech to China.
Coincidentally, last month the Russian parliament voted
to increase the penalty for treason from 20 years in jail, to life imprisonment.
But Russia is kind of stuck. It’s struggling with Western sanctions.
They need China to survive. And China knows it can get away with a lot.
It’s a stickier situation
than the last time they cooked pancakes together.
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Join what I call the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,
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Today’s question comes from Joshua Williams. “I'm a member now? So can anyone tell me if
Chris is from China? Why focus so hard on the regime? I applaud him, true patriot, but
something must have inspired him. Been watching for years and just haven't subbed until now.”
Joshua, thanks for joining the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army! Really,
this show would not exist without your support.
So I am not from China. Shelley is actually. Her parents were studying
in the US when the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened and
they decided going back wouldn’t be the best choice. So for her, it’s personal.
As for me, I’d always been interested in Asian culture,
and that led me to studying more about recent Chinese history and the Communist Party.
I saw how evil Communist ideology is and all the horrible things the Chinese Communist Party
was doing to Chinese people and the United States and wanted to do something about it.
I began as a China news reporter but this was around the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Everyone was kind of in awe of China and didn’t know anything about the threat.
And doing straight news wasn’t getting people interested. YouTube was kind of a new thing at
the time and I thought if I could break from the straight news format and use a bit of
humor and sarcasm, I could get more people interested. And it seems to have worked.
Thanks for your question Joshua and thank you for joining the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army.
And thank you for watching.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.