As Russia Remembers War in Europe, Guest of Honor Is From China

[Purveyor]

BEIJING — When Russia celebrates the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis on Saturday, the most prominent leader standing with President Vladimir V. Putin to review a military parade will not be from the United States or Britain, Russia’s wartime allies.

Rather, it will be China’s leader, Xi Jinping, an imperfect symbol of the wartime past and an uncertain one for Russia’s future.

During his two years in office, Mr. Xi has traveled widely to advance China’s international prestige, and he is in Moscow in part because he wants to make sure that his country’s costly fight against Japan is not lost amid the celebrations of the defeat of Germany.

Mr. Putin, for his part, is happy to have Mr. Xi as evidence that his highly public pivot to the Far East — as a counterweight to the economic muscle of the West — is bearing fruit. However, there are several awkward factors that impinge on the images that both Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin aspire to project.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/world/asia/as-russia-remembers-war-in-europe-guest-of-honor-is-from-china.html

[swilton]

1. Russia

has always debated whether it is/should be more western or more eastern.....The notion that Russia should be more Russian than borrow from the West has been debated for centuries, as has Russia's longing to play 'catch up' with the West vis a vis its technology.

There is no causal mechanism here to establish that the Ukraine crisis provoked this celebration of the end of WWII with Chinese diplomats, but there is no doubt that the general trend of Russian foreign policy has been and will be toward Asia, especially after the events in Ukraine in 2014.

[newthinking]

2. Our approach is driving both countries toward each other

Our government has lost all ability to see "cause and effect" in our foreign policy on many levels.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Chiang-Kai Shek, an alumnus of organised crime in his younger days, was so corrupt,

he even disgusted his American sponsors, after realising how much of the funds they were providing him with for the war, was being sequestered for his personal treasure.

As for his troops, they were literally starving; in fact, the crooked imbecile had them chained up at night, to prevent them changing sides.