The Sino-Russian alliance solidifies

A month before China’s 20th Party Congress is scheduled to meet in Beijing, China’s President Xi Jinping will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan on September 15-16. The summit comes on the heels of what ABC News described as “sweeping military drills” by Russian forces, in which Chinese military units participated, and a Sino-Russian agreement to use yuan and rubles instead of dollars to pay for energy supplies.

Western media have speculated that the planned meeting in Uzbekistan will further solidify a growing strategic partnership that both leaders previously characterized as having “no limits.”

It is widely expected that Xi will further consolidate his leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the upcoming Party Congress. A few years ago, he engineered a “vote” to end term limits for China’s president, leading some observers to suggest that Xi, who has led China since 2012, will become “president for life” and attain a level of power within the CCP that rivals that once held by Mao Zedong. Putin, meanwhile, confirmed that he will meet with his “reliable partner,” and Russia’s ambassador to China called the upcoming meeting the leaders’ “first full-fledged summit during the pandemic.”