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Bobo Lo on China-Russia and the West [1]
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Date: 2023-05-05
It’s such a relief to have someone say what you would like to say better than you ever could
May 2006
Bobo Lo Andy Rothman
Head of Russia and Eurasia Programme China Macro Strategist
The Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House
The future of the relationship looks bright. Chinaís energy needs and Russiaís desire to increase oil and gas exports point to further substantial growth in economic ties. The current international environment appears to offer abundant opportunities for Sino-Russian cooperation in countering American ëhegemonicí ambitions. Indeed, so warm is the bilateral climate that there is mounting speculation that the ëstrategic partnershipí may evolve into a formal political-military alliance. And yet, scratch a little below the seemingly smooth surface and there is much to challenge the official optimism. The first indication that all is not quite as it seems is the evident concern in Russia about Chinaís rapid rise as the next global superpower. The second point is that, notwithstanding all the fanfare, the Russia-China relationship is still relatively small beer compared to the two countriesí ties with the West. Third, for two such apparently warm strategic partners, both sides are surprisingly suspicious and wary of each other. Although they retain many interests in common, Russia and China view their relationship from very different perspectives and in very different ways.
May 04, 2023
Jade Wong Senior Fellow, Gordon & Leon Institute
By contrast, Putin’s approach to the global order is anarchic and destructive. If China contributes to peacemaking in Ukraine, politicians in the West will feel the need to read Bobo Lo in earnest. Third, many politicians in the West see China and Russia from the perspective of ideological and bloc confrontation. Nevertheless, as Bobo Lo, a longtime observer of China-Russian relations, pointed out, the two countries have very different attitudes toward the international order. China is an active participant in the international system. It is a revisionist rather than a revolutionary player.
Bobo Lo (Chinese: 罗波波；born 1959):
The world’s Ukraine predicament was predictable
While surfing the net for interesting takes on the issue of Ukraine-Russia by way of Zelensky-Xi, I came across “A Well-Timed Phone Call,” and I was hooked. The article reads different from all the others I have read to this point and the last two paragraphs, above, piqued my curiosity, so who is Bobo Lo?
Dr. Lo’s Wiki as a selected list of his works, and the one featured here is the most recent one on the list that was linked. I could wait no longer and was rewarded with, Asian geopolitics “Special report: Asia Pacific Strategy.” This report was written in 2006, I won’t say long before Putin decided to invade Ukraine, because there is ample evidence that Ukraine has been a target of Russiaphiles since the founding of The Russian Federation in 1991. The two paragraphs quoted above are the last two paragraphs of Dr. Lo’s 35-page paper, they could have been written today.
The coyness of the Xi-Putin relationship breeds uncertainty, but it does not hide the senior position of China in the relationship nor Russia’s distrust of China. Lo aptly points that out several times in his assessment of the China-Russia relationship. He explores the very same questions that are being asked today about the dept of that relationship, and concludes that China’s view of the world needs International order to be realized.
That bodes well for Ukraine.
[END]
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