The BBC reports:
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Xi Jinping: Russia-China ties ‘guarantee world peace’
“Mr Xi, is that a buzzer in your hand?”
Xi Jinping has said China’s friendship with Russia guarantees “strategic balance and peace” in the world, on the second day of his trip to Moscow.
Mr Xi, on his first official overseas trip as leader, has already met President Vladimir Putin.
He described the Russian leader as a “good friend”.
[snip]
Mr Xi told students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations that China would continue to oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
“We must respect the right of each country in the world to independently choose its path of development,” he said.
“Strong high-level Chinese-Russian ties not only meet our interests, but serve as an important, reliable guarantee of international strategic balance and peace.”
During the Cold War the two countries, while both nominally Communist, were bitter rivals.
But both sides have been full of praise for each other during Mr Xi’s visit.
“We can already say this is a historic visit with positive results,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Xi was confirmed as China’s president last week, concluding a lengthy transition process that saw him assume the Communist Party leadership in November 2012.
Wonder how Mr. Xi feels about the U.S.? Especially after all we’ve done for China? Perhaps Mr. Bosco at the Weekly Standard has an answer to that question:
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‘The China Dream’ a Nightmare?
Has a quiet military coup taken over China’s foreign policy? Is China’s new president, Xi Jinping, leading the militarization of policy or submitting to it? The questions are not frivolous or far-fetched given recent actions and statements emanating from China’s new leader and other influential establishment figures.
Immediately after assuming his positions as head of the Communist Party and the Chinese military, Xi made a series of visits to state of the art military units and installations. He rallied his officers and men to be ready for “real combat” and “fighting and winning wars,” suggesting a sense of not-too-distant conflict. Unlike the more bellicose bombast coming out of North Korea, Chinese rhetoric is less explicit in naming the United States as the intended enemy.
But Major General Zhu Chenghu, who heads China’s National Defense University, was more specific when he once threatened nuclear attacks against “hundreds” of U.S. cities in a possible Taiwan conflict. Like an earlier general who made a similar nuclear threat, he was promoted, not fired. (This week Zhu will visit the Pentagon where he may deliver another tough message—or take the softer line he used at a dinner toast during a 2009 Beijing conference, vigorously insisting that “China and the U.S. are friends.”)
Xi has adopted as his governing theme “The China Dream,” the title of a popular book by another NDU intellectual, Col. Lin Mingfu, who advocates China’s military dominance, not just regionally but globally. Xi’s speeches equate “a strong nation” with “a strong military.” Arms prowess seems to have supplanted economic development as the principal component in China’s vision of “comprehensive national power”.
So, if you prefer to cling to Mr. Clinton’s assertion that he hasn’t seen a Communist since 1990, be my guest. Otherwise, send him and Mr. Obama a copy of this post. Not that it will change anything. It’s all in the dialectic, isn’t it? Just ask Mr. Atbashian over at “The People’s Cube”
Or, you can just stick with the madness, March or otherwise.
Ciao,
Dennis