May 21, 2026

Beijing has become an increasingly popular destination for world leaders. Over the past ten months, 18 heads of state and government visited China. Among them were President Trump, King Felipe VI of Spain, President Halla Tómasdóttir, Prime Minister Micheál Martin, President Macron, Prime Minister Sánchez, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Starmer, Prime Minister Carney, and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. Trump’s visit was the first time a US President visited China in almost nine years, the last one being Trump’s visit in 2017.

Trump’s state visit was originally planned for the first week of April, but the meeting was postponed to 14-15 May due to the war in Iran. Thus, his visit was immediately followed by Putin’s visit, boosting China’s global image.

This was President Putin’s 25^th official trip to China. The visit coincided with the 25^th  anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship. The treaty was signed a month after China, Russia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan had signed the  Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter at their summit in St.  Petersburg on June 7, 2002.

In May last year, President Xi traveled to Russia for a state visit. The timing was again highly symbolic, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, aligning with the “80^th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War, and the Founding of the United Nations”.[i]

During the visit, the two leaders signed a joint statement to further deepen the “China-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era.”

At the beginning of the Russia-China talks in expanded format, Presidents Xi and Putin underlined that the relationship between the two countries is guided by the principles of equality and mutual respect.

Equality of states is the dictate of international relations and international law. However, behind this façade always lie judgments of power. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the US were the world’s top two rivals. The US was superior politically and economically, but both were major nuclear powers. China had not yet emerged as a global economic and military power. Over the past five decades, the situation has changed.

The Soviet Union was formally dissolved on December 26, 1991. Negative trends continued during the Yeltsin years. Under President Putin, this was reversed.

Since Putin was not prepared to agree to Ukraine’s joining NATO, which had already doubled its membership, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia’s initial plan was to invade the entire Ukraine in a blitzkrieg, at least, cut it off from the Black Sea. The project failed.  After four years, Russia remains bogged down in a war of attrition in Ukraine.

It now seems that after four years of fighting and thousands and thousands of casualties, related economic and diplomatic problems, Russians’ support for the war could be waning. Without a shadow of a doubt, Europeans also want to see this war end sooner rather than later. However, any peace, particularly one based on the current battle lines, represents a challenge to President Putin’s future and his legacy. And this creates a difficulty for the sides in taking the “first step” toward peace.

In Beijing, Putin was also extended a lavish welcome. The two presidents held small- and large-group talks. The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the current state of US-Europe relations were no doubt addressed in a restricted format with the participation of foreign ministers.

Both presidents stressed, at every opportunity, that the China-Russia partnership is a strategic choice. They reaffirmed their determination to remain on this path. Multiple dimensions of bilateral cooperation were taken up, and it seems that various departments of the two countries were tasked to follow up on the common understandings reached by the two presidents.

Under a one-year trial policy that started on September 15, 2025, China and Russia had agreed to allow their citizens visa-free travel for up to 30 days. On Wednesday, China extended this policy until the end of 2027.

In remarks to the media with Putin, Xi Jinping notably said, “Unilateralism and hegemonism have brought severe harm, and the world risks regressing to the law of the jungle.” Yet, he also offered Trump a gift. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday confirmed that Beijing had agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes.

[i] https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zy/jj/xjpdelsjxgsfwcxjnslwgzzslqd/202505/t20250509_11618129.html