14. Take a sober view of China-Russia relations

Nova Event

In 2009, the Chinese cargo ship Nova was sunk by Russian warships in the waters off Nakhodka, Russia, and three of the 10 Chinese crew members on board were rescued and the other seven were missing.

This incident is very inconsistent with the $25 billion agreement reached between China and Russia not long ago. The degree of damage to the feelings of ordinary people is very large, and the further strengthening of ties and the establishment of strong relations between China and Russia is also very significant.

Let's just say that what the Russian side said is true, the ship just broke the law, illegally left the port and escaped, and then urgently arrested and pursued, and in the process of chasing, it continued to fire non-stop, and sank in the process of dragging it back. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly issued statements saying that the actions of Russian border guards are legal.

But I think we have to pay attention to one point, and from the Russian side, we must also pay very attention to this. That is, what kind of law do you legally accept? In this point, there is a special emphasis on the issue of opening the cannon, and the cannons are prevented from sailing and seizing it, which is okay. Hitting a part of the boat to stop the boat from moving forward can also be done. But when a ship is sunk and there are casualties, the nature of the problem is different.

There were more than 500 shells, so if you had a warning shot, would you need so many shells? Moreover, after the shipwreck, some crew members fell into the water, and Russia could not rescue the ship in time on the grounds that the wind and waves were too strong, which had a great impact on the relations between the two sides.

Unpleasant events between China and Russia have happened before. For example, in 2005, there was an explosion of the Jihua Company, and the water of the Songhua River was polluted and flowed into the Heilongjiang River, polluting the entire Heilongjiang water system, including the Russian border city of Khabarovsk.

At that time, the Chinese side did a lot of remedial work, including providing a large amount of aid materials to the Russian side, cleaning up the materials, and the Chinese side also specially blocked the waterway to ensure that the water of the Ussuri River was not polluted, and to ensure that the two water intakes in Khabarovsk were clean.

Because the cause of the incident at that time was the pollution of Heilongjiang caused by us, which brought losses to the Russian side. Therefore, although the weather was very cold at that time, our armed police officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army built dams in the ice and snow to block the waterways and ensure that the water of the Ussuri River was clean.

In order to reduce pollution, and the impact on the Russian side, we are doing everything we can. At that time, the authorities of the Russian Far East sent some very unfriendly signals. First of all, the incident was caused by some of our careless pollution, which really had a great impact on both sides.

But on the one hand, China has taken a lot of remedial measures; On the other hand, Russia's high-level Putin came out and said that he should not affect the relations between China and Russia because of this incident.

According to Chinese words, it is necessary to proceed from the overall situation of Sino-Russian relations. How the overall situation is established is also established through small situations and local situations. The so-called embankment of a thousand miles collapses in the anthill, and some small aspects may cause great damage to the large aspects.

The sinking of the Nova and the casualties of the Chinese crew have aroused widespread concern in world public opinion, and Russia's handling of this accident has nothing to do with me by merely saying that all actions are legal. This will have a great impact on the traditional friendship between China and Russia and on the future.

In the course of the financial crisis, scholars in the United States have repeatedly proposed that the United States and China must work together to rescue and control the world. Some people in the United States raised the issue of the G2, saying that the G7 does not work, the G8 does not work, and the G20 group does not play a role very well, and it is the G2 that really works. It is that the combined economic output of China and the United States has reached 17 trillion US dollars, which will dominate the world economy and truly save the world economy from depression.

In fact, this is a unilateral assumption of the Americans, and the Chinese have not joined this appeal of the Americans, but there is no doubt that this statement has also aroused the vigilance of the Russian side. Because of this financial crisis, of course, the impact on the US economy is very large, and the impact on China's economy is not small, but the impact on the Russian economy is even greater.

During the eight years of Putin's rule, Russia's economic recovery mainly relied on two pillars, namely oil and gas. The decline in oil and gas prices has a great impact on Russia. So in this case, of course, there are some claims on the Russian side, that China is not greatly affected, and China has more than 2 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves. It seems that China is going to override Russia, is the traditional equality and partnership between China and Russia going to change, and is China going to overtake Russia?

This is the statement of some Russian scholars. The so-called G2 of the United States, in which China and the United States join hands to govern the world, is also the statement of individual American scholars, and it has not entered their respective leadership levels at all.

We laughed it off. We are clearly aware of China's objective international position, and we are well aware of the difficulties we face. Definitely not fluttering because of all kinds of arguments. Russia, on the other hand, believes that China and the United States should join forces and put Russia aside.

This statement of Russia is also the analysis and judgment of some Russian scholars, and there are various kinds of analysis and judgment of different scholars in various countries in any situation. The main thing is that this is not the judgment of the Russian leadership.

The judgment of the Russian leadership Dmitry Medvedev and Putin will not be as some Russian scholars believe. They are still able to make a very calm and objective judgment on the prospects for the development of Sino-Russian relations. The development of Sino-Russian relations and the establishment of a strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia will have a very large space for development in the future, and there will be a very large space for the national interests of both sides to be enhanced.

China adheres to non-alignment

In August 2011, when Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, visited Russia, he and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Makarov jointly agreed to hold joint military exercises at sea in 2012 and signed a memorandum of understanding on the exercises.

The joint exercise, which was held on the Jiaodong Peninsula, was the first large-scale exercise since the Sino-Russian joint exercise. Of course, it is also the first exercise of the Chinese and Russian navies.

In the early 50s of the 20th century, that is, during the Sino-Soviet alliance, Mao Zedong fiercely opposed the establishment of a joint fleet with the Soviet Union. The fact that the Pacific Fleets of China and Russia are now conducting large-scale naval exercises in the Yellow Sea has shown that the relations between China and Russia have undergone tremendous changes.

From the Russian side, the USSR collapsed, and Russia inherited the main armed forces of the USSR. From China's point of view, China has embarked on the road of reform and opening up, and although China adheres to the policy of non-alignment, it is very necessary to stabilize the security situation in its neighborhoods through such friendly joint exercises, and at the same time improve its military skills and military level.

In the fifties and sixties of the 20 th century, China and the Soviet Union had a military alliance, but the confrontation and mutual distrust between the two sides were deep-rooted. Today, at least, China regards non-alignment as a major national policy. Russia does not declare non-alignment, but it is also not prepared to engage in a military bloc.

The two sides are engaged in relatively close military cooperation, and for both sides, especially the Chinese side, the exercise has enhanced the capability of joint military operations at sea.

The Western media, as well as the domestic media that follow the hype of the Western media, focus not on military interpretation, but on political interpretation. Their main remarks were: "What is the meaning of this? Are China and Russia going to be an alliance? Is this exercise aimed at Japan? "Wait. Such a political interpretation may have the intentions of various media outlets, but it cannot be settled on the issue of establishing friendly relations between China and Russia.

The Sino-Russian joint maritime military exercises will certainly be of great help in stabilizing the situation in the western Pacific and enhancing the ability of China and Russia to defend their national security in the waters of the western Pacific.

There is a lot of room for military cooperation and exchanges between China and Russia. From the perspective of the Chinese military, since the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, whether it is the army, navy, or air force, the continuous weapon system was basically built with the assistance of the Soviet Union at that time. Today, we have completed the localization of our army's equipment, as well as a large number of naval and air force equipment. But on the whole, the Soviet weapons system still has a great influence on us, including its military science and technology, defense industry, etc.

There is no doubt that today the West represents the highest level of military science and technology. However, if similar cooperation is carried out from the West, there are several difficulties in general. First of all, the West will not give, like the European Union's arms embargo on China, not to mention the United States, and the censorship system is very strict. Second, China's weapons systems have a natural affinity with Russia.

From the above two points, it can be seen that apart from the political and state relations between the two sides, Russia is more suitable for China only from the perspective of the systematization of weapons and equipment.

Moreover, military cooperation is not for the sake of a military alliance between the two sides. In fact, Russia is quite wary of China, and the best equipment will not be given to China.

Russia has a history of violent law enforcement

In July 2012, a Russian border patrol boat opened fire on a Chinese fishing vessel that crossed the border in Russia's exclusive economic zone, and collided with the fishing boat in pursuit, leaving one Chinese crew member missing. In this regard, the North-Eastern Border Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia said that the actions taken by the Russian side were legal.

We also recall that in 2009, the Chinese cargo ship "Nova" was sunk by Russian warships, and 8 people, including 7 Chinese, were missing. At that time, the Russian side also said that the actions taken by the Russian side were legal.

This is a very strange part of Russian state policy, as far as we Chinese are concerned.

China and Russia are making some effective cooperation in the international arena. For example, the SCO, the two sides cooperated very well, including on the Syrian issue, and the two sides cooperated well, and now Russia is taking this behavior, which makes the Chinese feel very incomprehensible, such a rough law enforcement, and aimed at such an important friend of yours.

This is incomprehensible from the perspective of our Chinese feelings.

Of course, we look at it from a customary tradition, Russia has always been like this, shooting at Chinese fishing boats, shooting at Japanese fishing boats, shooting at South Korean fishing boats, it has always been like this. We seldom hear, if not hear, of Japan shooting at Russian fishing boats, South Korea shooting at Russian fishing boats, not to mention China shooting at their fishing boats.

Of course, it is still difficult for us to accept emotionally. With such violent law enforcement, why can't Russia adopt a civilized attitude of law enforcement in state-to-state relations?

These involve the character of the Russian nation and the way in which it acts, Russia is like that, it does not require you to be consistent throughout the country, Sino-Russian friendship, Sino-Russian cooperation, and then all Chinese are friendly to Russia. This is not the case in Russia, there is a border practice on the border, there is a UN practice in the UN, they are diametrically separate.

We are not used to this, but this is international politics, I think we need to adapt to it, we have to learn to use such means, national interests are national interests, personal feelings, feelings between leaders, that is, feelings to feelings, interests to interests, in the face of interests, no one will make concessions, and the same is true of Russia.

So from this point of view, we can also see the complexity of the relationship between China and Russia, we are not natural allies, we are naturally friends, we are naturally partners, we are consistent on some issues, some issues are inconsistent, some issues we are cooperative, some issues we are opposed.

For example, this incident has triggered a very strong backlash from the Chinese people. We, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also said that we hope that Russia will give an explanation and hope that Russia will not adopt such violent law enforcement acts, and this is our very clear attitude today.

However, from this point of view, we should also take a more sober view of Sino-Russian relations, and do not think that China and Russia have effectively cooperated on certain issues, such as the Syrian issue, China and Russia are natural allies, and their national interests are completely compatible, which is still different.

Reality is seen more, calmly, more solidly, not full of enthusiasm and imagination, as a result of which the relations between the two countries have suffered a setback, and everyone has been hurt.

China takes the interests of the Chinese as the starting point, and Russia takes the interests of the Russians as the starting point, and finds the point of combining the interests of the two countries, which is the focus of today, and is also the basis for developing a long-term, sustainable and friendly strategic cooperative partnership.