The Great Wall of China
The Chinese-Russian partnership hinges on someone who foots the end-bill. And that’s a market that buys all that stuff. China makes money by making stuff and selling it. Russia makes money buy extracting stuff from the soil and selling it. When China cant sell its stuff, it cant buy Russias stuff. The dominant factor in this relationship is the market. Ah, there is the new Chinese middle class you say. Hold on – this Middle class is a middle class only when money from selling stuff made in China still comes in. When this fails, the middle class is not quite so middle anymore. Neither China nor Russia are true consumer economies – they are fiefdoms selling whatever they find in their countries. Russia its sub-soil and China its sweat. This Great wall might well be only a small garden fence.
Several days before the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Chinese Foreign Ministry officially confirmed the participation of President Xi Jinping, who was in Russia on a state visit, at the forum and its plenary meeting.
