The Dragon and the Bear
Ever since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Russia and China have sought to rekindle the close relations that once supposedly existed between the USSR and Mao's China before Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin in 1956. But 17 years of high-level bilateral cooperation have produced little of substance, and Russia's renewed geopolitical assertiveness has alienated China profoundly.
Second honeymoons rarely, if ever, recapture the zest of lost love. Yet ever since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Russia and China have sought to rekindle the close relations that once supposedly existed between the USSR and Mao’s China before Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin in 1956. But that renewed Sino-Russian marriage always smacked more of convenience – aimed as it was at checking American hegemony – than of true romance. Now Russia’s invasion of Georgia has shattered even the illusion of attraction.
Second honeymoons rarely, if ever, recapture the zest of lost love. Yet ever since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Russia and China have sought to rekindle the close relations that once supposedly existed between the USSR and Mao’s China before Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin in 1956. But that renewed Sino-Russian marriage always smacked more of convenience – aimed as it was at checking American hegemony – than of true romance. Now Russia’s invasion of Georgia has shattered even the illusion of attraction.