Russia knows it is losing to China and is holding its breath over whether Russia can hold the Far East.
Yeah:
Russia has become economically dependent on China because of low oil prices and post-2014 Ukraine related economic sanctions. Russia and China often cooperate when dealing with their mutual enemies, which currently includes just about every other country on the planet. Yet Russia and China are unnatural allies because Russia has taken much from China in the past and China never stopped wanting it back. This is not just about territorial disputes in the Russian Far East but also past Russian wrongs. One of the most prominent of these was how the 1950-53 Korean War included China because Russia (Josef Stalin) insisted. In 1950 Russia was an essential military, economic and political ally of China. Despite many misgivings, China complied, sending over two million troops to North Korea over three years. About a third of these soldiers were casualties. Some ten percent of the Chinese troops were killed and other 20 percent were wounded or disabled by disease, accidents or exposure. Chinese troops often froze to death during their first Winter in North Korea. Disease was a problem, especially during the first year.
I've noted the Far East where China's "century of humiliation" continues. Russia's friendship with China is really appeasement that is masked by loud Russian threats to the non-threat of NATO.
And yeah, while Xi boast about the Korean War, he can't really like being sent out as cannon fodder by the Soviets:
So Xi Jinping will try to scare America with the prospect of war with China? And this will include displaying an American Army regimental standard captured in the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War? Well, we might want to remind China that it took 200,000 to 600,000 dead Chinese troops to capture that flag.As Strategypage goes on to say:
The Chinese believe they won’t have to use their military superiority to take back portions of the Russian Far East. This is being done economically and Russia knows it can’t do much to stop this. China has the edge economically and militarily. Russians are big fans of chess and see this situation as an inevitable Chinese victory. The only question is how many more moves before Russia suffers mate in the far east.
Talk of a Russian-Chinese alliance is likely overblown (although the Nazi-Soviet Pact shows that temporary alliances against the odds can happen).
I thought perhaps that Russia had finally bit the bullet to start to end that appeasement, but it is early yet.
Who knows? Maybe Russia will just surrender to China and hope for the best.
Although the Chinese might yet want a "signal victory" over Russia to establish China's rise.
