Was China Betting on Russian Defeat All Along?
IMVHO the article is just a bit of fantasy bolted with very superficial geopolitical analysis: China is <i>clearly</i> the winner so far, sanctions against Russia for China means far more Russian natural resources to them, far bigger access to weapons tech, far more negotiation power.<p>Russia is not Soviet Union, it&#x27;s <i>far</i> less powerful and so need a partner. EU was their first and best bet, they try many time to offer the olive branch to EU but USA&#x2F;UK&#x2F;NATO always manage to stop accepting it, only EU biggest (France, Germany and Italy) have <i>part</i> of gov&#x2F;business interest since they are not so blind, we are natural partner and needing each others make the partnership on par, while with the USA the partnership is definitively not on par. Anyway, since the west door remain close the other option was China, a historical enemy, but a stable partner that need Russia as much Russia need China. That&#x27;s is. Since then China was the winner. Russian Far East&#x2F;Siberia is already &quot;substantially Chinese&quot; without any special geopolitical maneuvering: Russia have not invested enough there, China have done, most local infrastructure are made by China to link China to Far east&#x2F;Siberia, most locals buy and sell to China, go on holiday in China etc, China do not need more than that: they have full access to natural resources and thanks to the <i>desperation</i> of USA&#x2F;UK that push the EU away from Russia to being able to still control EU they have secured the partnership for decades to come.<p>Consider a thing: now Russia probably offer China nuke tech, something they have NEVER ever do before, with China industry and Russian tech and natural resources behind, China can overpower USA in few years. They do not need more than that. What I do not much understand is how desperate USA&#x2F;UK can be to choose a so suicidal course.