Global impact | ‘No limits’ partnership or ‘priority partners’: China, Russia seek to define relationship as Western pressure mounts

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When Chinese President Xi Jinping hugged his “old friend” Vladimir Putin as he escorted his visiting Russian counterpart out of the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing last week, it again laid bare the closeness between the two countries.

However, despite the solidarity showcased during the Russian president’s second trip to China in just seven months, a question mark remains over how far the “no limits” friendship between the world’s two biggest non-Western powers can go.

Observers foresee increasing tests for the alignment, and they expect Beijing to seek a “delicate balance” in its diplomacy with the Kremlin and the West.

The view comes as the United States and the European Union have raised the tone of their warnings about China’s alleged support for Russia’s defence industrial base amid the war in Ukraine, while Beijing has ramped up efforts – notably Xi’s recent European tour – to put its relations with Washington and Brussels on better footing.

Putin concluded his two-day trip to China with a stop in Harbin, a northeastern Chinese city known for its Russian legacy and its role as an important gateway between the two countries.