An Emerging China - Russia Axis? Implications for the United States in an Era of Strategic Competition - Current Sino-Russian Cooperation, Limits and Barriers, Risks in Asia, Middle East, and Arctic

Book excerpt: This important report compilation contains the testimony of nine renowned experts on an emerging China-Russia axis at a Senate hearing in March 2019. This hearing explored the China-Russia relationship and its implications for U.S. national security interests. The first panel examined areas of strategic, military, and economic cooperation between China and Russia, and the second panel assessed the potential limits and barriers to cooperation in these areas. The third panel examined current and future China-Russia interaction in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Arctic.Panel I: Ties that Bind: Current Areas of Sino-Russian Cooperation * 1. Robert Sutter, Ph.D. Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University * 2. Richard Weitz, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Director of Center for Political-Military Analysis, Hudson Institute * 3. Erica Downs, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist, CNA; Non-Resident Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University * Panel II: Friction and Barriers: Limits to Sino-Russian Cooperation * 4. Jeanne Wilson, Ph.D. Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Russian Studies, Chair of Political Science Department, Wheaton College * 5. Stephen Blank, Ph.D. Senior Fellow for Russia, American Foreign Policy Council * 6. Pranay Vaddi, J.D., Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace * Panel III: Challenging Futures: Risks and Opportunities in Central Asia and Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the Arctic * 7. Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D. Director of Central Asia Program and Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University167 * 8. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Director of Transatlantic Security Program, Center for a New American Security * 9. Rebecca Pincus, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Strategic and Operational Research Department, U.S. Naval War CollegeExcerpts: It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the new and ostensibly democratic Russian Federation and a China weakened by the post-Tiananmen Square massacre fallout, took constructive steps to restore normal bilateral relations. In 2001, Beijing and Moscow signed a 20-year Friendship Treaty that helped the two sides shelve differences and expand cooperation. Notably, the two countries also finally settled their lingering border disputes, resolving a long-standing strain in the relationship. Since then, three key developments have accelerated the growing alignment between China and Russia. First, the 2008 global financial crisis created a strategic opportunity for Beijing and Moscow in light of their common perception of U.S. decline and the dangers of over-reliance on the West to deepen cooperation. As European banks were unable to bail out major Russian energy firms in financial trouble, Chinese lenders stepped in to provide these companies long-term loans, fostering growing energy ties. Second, the rise to power of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2012 to 2013 and return of office of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2012 invigorated China and Russia's growing alignment. The authoritarian tendencies and shared world views of the two leaders have helped improve bilateral coordination while managing their differences. And finally, Western sanctions on Russia after its 2014 annexation of Crimea led Moscow, increasingly isolated from the United States and the West, to significantly strengthen its engagement with Beijing.