Chinese Media: "Biden Unveils Strategy to Divide China-Russia Relations"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Chinese state media claimed on the 16th (local time) that the first face-to-face summit between the U.S. and Russian leaders would not help ease tensions between the two countries and argued that the U.S. is pursuing a strategy to divide China-Russia relations.

China's state-run Global Times evaluated President Biden's description of Russia as one of the "Two great powers" alongside the U.S. during the summit as a "strategy to divide China-Russia relations."

Referring to former President Barack Obama’s designation of Russia as a "regional power" during the annexation of Crimea, which downgraded Russia’s status, it emphasized that the U.S.'s fundamental view is that Russia is not its greatest threat.

Lu Xiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "The U.S. arrogantly showed that it does not recognize Russia as an equal partner, claiming Russia’s strength is waning," adding, "Although President Biden made respectful remarks about Russia this time, President Putin is a wise and strategic thinker."

Despite the U.S. showing conciliatory gestures toward Russia, it is argued that the U.S. strategy to divide China-Russia relations is unfeasible because China and Russia are closely cooperating in areas such as trade and technology.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, stated, "The fact that the U.S. proposed the summit means the U.S. is the side desperate for talks," and added, "However, the 30-year history of conflict between the U.S. and Russia means that relations will not easily recover with just one summit."

He further predicted, "This summit may temporarily ease the deadlock between the two countries but will not structurally change the conflict."

Major U.S. foreign media also evaluated that although the two leaders opened the door to dialogue, they failed to reach joint agreements on sensitive issues.

There are also assessments that the summit, which was expected to last four to five hours, ended shorter than anticipated, revealing the limitations of this meeting. The Washington Post (WP) reported, "Both sides only conveyed their own opinions, and there was no time for discussions to reconcile differences."

In particular, the lack of progress in discussions on cyber security and human rights, issues on which the two countries have been seriously at odds, was pointed out. The New York Times (NYT) analyzed, "President Putin’s strong denial of allegations that Russia conducted cyberattacks against the U.S., followed by rebuttals on human rights issues, indicates that the two leaders failed to find common ground on many points."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.