China-Russia ties can withstand any potential containment efforts despite Washington’s long-standing hopes of driving a wedge between the two, a senior Chinese policy adviser has said, citing deep-seated US-Russia “contradictions” within what he called a “great triangle” of relations.
Wu Dahui, deputy director of the Russian Research Institute at Tsinghua University, said while China and Russia were not formally allies, their relationship was “better than an alliance” and took the form of “self-selected strategic coordination”.
“We each take what we need,” he said of Beijing and Moscow at a panel discussion in Hong Kong on Wednesday. “While [the relationship] is flexible and lacks formal disciplinary constraints, it possesses inherent stability and has evolved into a stable mechanism.”
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Wu pointed to a network of more than 60,000 institutionalised communication channels or “blood vessels” between China and Russia, ranging from government and parliamentary levels to civil society and industry groups.
Within the “great triangle” of relations between China, Russia and the US, “these institutionalised links are more significant than the lure of immediate interests” and “difficult to transcend” because communication happens daily, he added.
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