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95 Foreign Aff. 96 (2016)
How China Sees Russia: Beijing and Moscow Are Close, but Not Allies

handle is hein.journals/fora95 and id is 122 raw text is: How China Sees Russia Beijing and Moscow Are Close, but Not Allies Fu Ying A t a time when Russian relations with the United States and western European countries are growing cold, the relatively warm ties between China and Russia have attracted renewed interest. Scholars and journalists in the West find themselves debating the nature of the Chinese-Russian partnership and wondering whether it will evolve into an alliance. Since the end of the Cold War, two main views have tended to define Western assessments of the Chinese-Russian relationship and pre- dictions of its future. The first view holds that the link between Beijing and Moscow is vulnerable, contingent, and marked by uncertainties- a marriage of convenience, to use the phrase favored by many advocates of this argument, who see it as unlikely that the two countries will grow much closer and quite possible that they will begin to drift apart. The other view posits that strategic and even ideological factors form the basis of Chinese-Russian ties and predicts that the two countries-both of which see the United States as a possible obstacle to their objectives-will eventually form an anti- U.S., anti-Western alliance. Neither view accurately captures the true nature of the relationship. The Chinese-Russian relationship is a stable strategic partnership and by no means a marriage of convenience: it is complex, sturdy, and deeply rooted. Changes in international relations since the end of the Cold War have only brought the two countries closer together. Some Western analysts and officials have speculated (and perhaps even hoped) that the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, in which Russia has FU YING is Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and a Specially Invited Vice Chair of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. 96 FOREIGN AFFAIRS