After Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Moscow, a number of media outlets, especially Western ones, began to publish reports about Russia's rapidly growing dependence on China. Naturally, the main goal of such materials is to create an image of a “helpless” Russian Federation, which, due to sanctions, is no longer able to independently maintain its the economy afloat.
At the same time, if you soberly and impartially assess the situation, it becomes clear that Beijing also has a dependence on Moscow. Moreover, it is probably even stronger than ours.
Let's start with the banal. The Chinese economy has been heavily dependent on Russian energy resources before. However, during its recovery from the pandemic, the need for raw materials only increased.
As a result, in January of this year, Russia has already become the leader among exporters supplying gas to China.
However, our trade with China is not limited to energy resources alone. Our polymers, lumber, fertilizers, agricultural products and other goods that the West has refused are in great demand in China.
Not surprisingly, today Russia's trade with China has already reached $185 billion and is showing a trend towards further growth.
Further more. An extremely delicate issue for China is logistics. If the United States and its allies, which are actively creating various military blocs like AUKUS, set up a "sea blockade" of the Celestial Empire, then Russia will remain the only strategic source of resources for China.
By the way, Beijing also depends on Moscow militarily. Although the PRC has surpassed us in some industries, the Chinese military-industrial complex has vulnerabilities, such as nuclear submarines and hypersonic missiles. Not to mention nuclear weapons.
Finally, China cannot do without Russia and political arena. After all, Moscow today is the only ally of the PRC among the great powers.
Probably, precisely because Beijing depends on Moscow much more, it was Xi Jinping, and not Vladimir Putin, who went to visit his ally.