Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) held back-to-back calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump this week, which analysts said was rare and significant as Beijing positions itself as a stable global power.
Xi’s video call with Putin on Wednesday afternoon was followed just hours later by a phone call with Trump.
Xi and Putin spoke for 1.5 hours, the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide said, while Trump said they had a “long and thorough” conversation.
Photo: Xinhua News Agency via AP
“It does demonstrate that Xi can hold court and easily pick up the phone to speak with the two ‘strong’ leaders of the world,” Nanyang Technological University associate professor Dylan Loh (駱明輝) said.
Russia and the US are two of the “most consequential” countries to China, Loh said, adding that the timing could have been “a simple scheduling issue.”
Trump said he and Xi discussed trade, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Iran.
China had committed to increasing soybean purchases from the US to 20 million tonnes in the current season, he added.
Loh said that the call confirmed that “in spite of what’s happened around the world, there is going to be a short-term tactical stabilization of US-China relations.”
However, Xi warned Washington to exercise caution in arms sales to Taiwan.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) said, “we don’t worry too much about this whole telephone communication.”
“In fact, we believe that it will contribute to stabilize the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Xi and Putin hailed the deepening of Chinese-Russian ties as they try to present a united front against the West.
The two discussed their “opinions” on the US, and “special attention was given to the tense situation in Iran,” the Kremlin said.
Xi is seeking to position himself as equidistant from Putin and Trump, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies assistant professor Benjamin Ho (何子恩) said.
“China is trying to seek international maneuver space to ensure that whatever happens globally, it does not get fenced into a corner,” he said.
Domestically, China is reeling from a corruption probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), a top military general in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which sent shockwaves through defense observers.
Analysts said that while Zhang’s investigation would likely not have been discussed with Putin and Trump, the timing of the calls could be a way for Xi to project confidence domestically.
Faced with uncertain and fragile domestic conditions, the “two-timing” calls were “probably for domestic posturing to demonstrate Xi’s political standing in the global theater,” Ho said.
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