Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer

[Stevicus]

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer (apnews.com)

MOSCOW (AP) — They’re not leaders for life — not technically, at least. But in political reality, the powerful tenures of China’s Xi Jinping and, as of this week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century — even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year.

What’s more, as they consolidate political control at home, sometimes with harsh measures, they’re working together more substantively than ever in a growing challenge to the West and the world’s other superpower, the United States, which elects its leader every four years.

While neither are technically leaders for life, both are ostensibly establishing themselves as such by removing legal barriers and cracking down on opposition.

This week, Putin signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — pushed through a constitutional vote last year allowing him to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends. He has overseen a systematic crackdown on dissent.

In China, Xi, who came to power in 2012, has imposed even tighter controls on the already repressive political scene, emerging as one of his nation’s most powerful leaders in the seven decades of Communist Party rule that began with Mao Zedong’s often-brutal regime. Under Xi, the government has rounded up, imprisoned or silenced intellectuals, legal activists and other voices, cracked down on Hong Kong’s opposition and used security forces to suppress calls for minority rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

Xi has sidelined rivals, locked up critics and tightened the party’s control over information. An ongoing crackdown against corruption has won popular support while also keeping potential competitors in line.

His steady consolidation of power led to the removal of term limits on the Chinese presidency in 2018, demolishing a convention the party had established to prevent a repeat of the abuse produced by Mao’s one-person rule. Xi further telegraphed his intention to remain in power by breaking from tradition and not indicating a preferred successor. One who appeared eager to take on the role, Sun Zhengcai, was brought down in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison on corruption charges.

Both leaders have appealed to strong nationalist sentiment in their respective countries as a vehicle for gaining a tighter hold on power.

In defying the West, Putin and Xi both have tapped nationalist feelings. Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea propelled Putin’s approval ratings to nearly 90% before they slackened amid economic woes and unpopular pensions reform.

But the impact of Putin’s and Xi’s enduring retention of power hardly ends at their respective nations’ borders. It ripples outward into the geopolitical balance of power in countless ways.

As Moscow’s relations with the West sank to post-Cold War lows amid accusations of election meddling and hacking attacks, Putin has increasingly sought to strengthen ties with China. And while China so far has avoided a showdown with the West like Russia’s, it is coming under growing pressure from Washington and its allies over Beijing’s human rights record in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

Due to US sanctions against Russia, Putin has been relying more and more on China to fill the gaps.

Western economic and financial sanctions have cut Moscow’s access to Western technologies and capital markets, slowing down the economy and impeding modernization efforts. Stagnant living standards and falling incomes have fueled growing discontent.

Russia’s increasingly close ties with China are part of its strategy to offset Western sanctions. Chinese companies provided substitutes for missing Western technologies, helped with major infrastructure projects like energy supplies to Crimea and channeled cash flows to ease the burden from sanctions on Kremlin-connected tycoons.

“Beijing helped Moscow, at least to some extent, to withstand U.S. and EU pressure,” Alexander Gabuev, the top China expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center wrote in a recent analysis. “This assistance also allowed Moscow to become more assertive elsewhere in the world, from being present in the Middle East and Africa to supporting the Venezuelan regime and interfering in U.S. elections.”

A possible military alliance between Russia and China has not been ruled out.

Military cooperation remains a high-stakes frontier. As U.S. pressure grew, Russia has moved to expand military ties with China. Their armed forces have held a series of joint drills, and Putin has noted that Russia has provided China with cutting-edge military technologies.

But a full-on alliance — putting the joint military might of Xi’s and Putin’s grips on their nations? Something like that seems less abstract when the increasingly tight relationship between the two long-term leaders is taken into consideration.

“We don’t need it,” Putin said in October. “But theoretically, it’s quite possible to imagine it.”

I recall a few years ago when military analysts determined that, in the event of a war with the US against China and Russia, the US would lose. I've also heard people say that China's industries and technologies are surpassing ours, and that the Russians are far better at computers and hacking than Americans are. I don't know how true it is, but such talk does give one pause.

What can the US do under these circumstances? If we lose global influence and try to negotiate with Russia and China from a position of weakness, then we may be in a worse situation. On the other hand, if we decide we want to stand up and confront the growing threat from China and Russia, then we might have to shore up our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities first. We might have to change our ways of thinking in order to meet the challenge that China and Russia may throw at us. We might have to get "leaner and meaner," so to speak.

 

[Regiomontanus]

Could there ever really be a winner in such a war? I don't think so.

Meanwhile I will to continue to pray for a one-world government, though it looks like our species would prefer annihilation to cooperation

 

[Revoltingest]

Could there ever really be a winner in such a war? I don't think so.

I see it a matter of who would lose the least.

 

[Regiomontanus]

I see it a matter of who would lose the least.

Yes, it would be very ugly.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes, it would be very ugly.

And radioactive wastelands don't even have that
pleasant greenish glow that we see in cartoons.

 

[Stevicus]

Could there ever really be a winner in such a war? I don't think so.

Meanwhile I will to continue to pray for a one-world government, though it looks like our species would prefer annihilation to cooperation

Well, if it's a nuclear war, no one will ever really win. I think Mao said something to the effect that, if there ever was a nuclear war, China would probably still end up winning because their population is so large that they would have the most survivors. But even if that was the case, what would they actually "win"?

But it could also be more like the Cold War, which was more of a strategic chess game and wars by proxy.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer (apnews.com)



While neither are technically leaders for life, both are ostensibly establishing themselves as such by removing legal barriers and cracking down on opposition.



Both leaders have appealed to strong nationalist sentiment in their respective countries as a vehicle for gaining a tighter hold on power.



Due to US sanctions against Russia, Putin has been relying more and more on China to fill the gaps.



A possible military alliance between Russia and China has not been ruled out.



I recall a few years ago when military analysts determined that, in the event of a war with the US against China and Russia, the US would lose. I've also heard people say that China's industries and technologies are surpassing ours, and that the Russians are far better at computers and hacking than Americans are. I don't know how true it is, but such talk does give one pause.

What can the US do under these circumstances? If we lose global influence and try to negotiate with Russia and China from a position of weakness, then we may be in a worse situation. On the other hand, if we decide we want to stand up and confront the growing threat from China and Russia, then we might have to shore up our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities first. We might have to change our ways of thinking in order to meet the challenge that China and Russia may throw at us. We might have to get "leaner and meaner," so to speak.

I have a suspicion Putin wants to revive a 'reborn' Warsaw pact.

 

[Stevicus]

I have a suspicion Putin wants to revive a 'reborn' Warsaw pact.

Maybe, although I doubt Warsaw would want to have anything to do with it.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Maybe, although I doubt Warsaw would want to have anything to do with it.

True but I'm sure he will find new allies.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer (apnews.com)



While neither are technically leaders for life, both are ostensibly establishing themselves as such by removing legal barriers and cracking down on opposition.



Both leaders have appealed to strong nationalist sentiment in their respective countries as a vehicle for gaining a tighter hold on power.



Due to US sanctions against Russia, Putin has been relying more and more on China to fill the gaps.



A possible military alliance between Russia and China has not been ruled out.



I recall a few years ago when military analysts determined that, in the event of a war with the US against China and Russia, the US would lose. I've also heard people say that China's industries and technologies are surpassing ours, and that the Russians are far better at computers and hacking than Americans are. I don't know how true it is, but such talk does give one pause.

What can the US do under these circumstances? If we lose global influence and try to negotiate with Russia and China from a position of weakness, then we may be in a worse situation. On the other hand, if we decide we want to stand up and confront the growing threat from China and Russia, then we might have to shore up our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities first. We might have to change our ways of thinking in order to meet the challenge that China and Russia may throw at us. We might have to get "leaner and meaner," so to speak.

We'll do what we must, but no country is eternal. Ideas can be. The concept and the idea of a melting pot of peoples without slavery has been shown viable and has been duplicated many times. Its an idea which China's government is trying to discourage both in Russia and around the world, but for what? They waste their energy. They don't know what China will become and have put too much trust in a top-down government. You think we've got problems?

 

[sun rise]

I see it a matter of who would lose the least.

Dead is dead.

 

[Revoltingest]

Dead is dead.

But survivors are survivors.