Chinese tourists visiting Russia shouldn’t overlook the “memorable sites” of 20th century history, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In Russia, those sites include communist memorials.
“Visiting memorable sites connected with the history of the revolutionary movement and the lives of Soviet party and state leaders is another area of interest for Chinese tourists,” Putin told a Chinese publication in advance of a trip to Beijing.
The former KGB officer gave that advice in an interview with the People’s Daily, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, pointing to what he said were more than 1.7 million tourists from China last year.
His gesture toward their shared communist heritage underscored Putin’s turn to China as a partner against Western powers, especially the United States, as he made clear while traveling to attend a summit organized around the Belt and Road Initiative that China launched to expand international economic influence.
“Unfortunately, some Western countries are claiming sole global leadership,” Putin said. “They carelessly trample on the norms and principles of international law, resort to blackmail, sanctions and pressure, and try to force their values and dubious ideals on entire countries and populations.”
Putin stressed that Russia and China “have overlapping or very close positions on the key issues of our time.” He lavished praise on the Belt and Road Initiative, contradicting U.S. warnings that China uses the infrastructure partnership framework aimed at opening up economic markets to induce poor governments to accept loans that they can’t repay — a form of “predatory” lending with geopolitical ramifications.
“President Xi Jinping’s initiative is really opening up extensive opportunities for equitable partnership,” Putin said. “Naturally, it is important for China to successfully promote this large-scale project. And all Eurasian states should stand to gain from participation in it.”
China’s plans have suffered somewhat as U.S. officials call attention to cases such as the loans to Sri Lanka, where China bankrolled the construction of an unnecessary port and then took sovereignty over the strategically located project when the island government defaulted on the debt. But the communist regime remains committed to the strategy of using its titanic economic stature to gain power around the world.
“Though the BRI is a development scheme, its political and security benefits for China grow increasingly clear, whether through EU members who oppose human rights statements against Beijing or African or Middle Eastern countries who will be less likely over time to provide U.S. forces military access,” Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe wrote in a recent column.
Those concerns are real, but Putin’s praise for China might overstate their capacity to cooperate. Attempts to partner in the Arctic, for instance, have been slowed by Russia’s hesitance to defer to China’s play for control over key projects.
“Importantly, ties between the regions of Russia and China are expanding,” Putin maintained. “I am convinced that the potential of the Russia-China partnership is truly inexhaustible.”
