China remains Russia’s backer, despite it bogging down in Ukraine

Russia’s mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, apparently died in a plane crash near Moscow on August 23. This was two months to the day after Prigozhin mounted a quasi-coup against Tsar Vladimir Putin, underscoring how this authoritarian leader was not going to allow a challenge to his reign to go unanswered.
Although Russia predictably denied culpability for bringing the private aircraft down, the Chinese government was even more circumspect. In a regular Foreign Ministry press conference the following day, spokesman Wang Wenbin simply stated, “We noted relevant reports.” When Prigozhin’s rebellion occurred, Beijing issued only a terse two-line statement, describing it as “Russia’s internal affair” but assuring Moscow of China’s support to “maintain its stability and achieve development and prosperity”.
This nasty episode will have underscored China’s belief that it must never rely on private mercenaries, and only on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Political loyalty is paramount to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the party views Russia’s overreliance on mercenaries as “getting caught in one’s own cocoon”.
For two decades, Putin nurtured private mercenaries such as Wagner Group, providing a counterweight to make sure his military generals did not get too big for their boots, as well as lending a veneer of deniability to Russia when they operated overseas in places like Syria or Libya.
China and Russia share a “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era”. But surely the CCP must be asking tough questions about its “no limits” partnership, even if Russia is the only sizeable country that shares China’s disdain for the USA and the West. Yes, there are the likes of North Korea and Iran, but they are not in Russia’s league.
Russia’s war in Ukraine helps with China’s ideological campaign against the expansion of Western liberal ideas.
However, perhaps Putin imbibed too much of Xi’s magic juice and became seduced by his assertion of the West’s inexorable decline. Xi and Putin likely thought the USA and NATO had become weary of war after 20 years in Afghanistan and Iraq, but now Putin is caught in a quagmire of his own against a neighbour just 1/28 th of Russia’s size.
Xi said in 2013: “Facts have repeatedly told us that Marx and Engels’ analysis of the basic contradictions of capitalist society is not outdated, nor is the historical materialist view of the inevitable demise of capitalism and the inevitable victory of socialism. This is the irreversible general trend of social and historical development, but the road is tortuous.
However, China does not have much of a choice. It cannot abandon Russia, for it would make a mockery of its fanfare about a new era. Apart from Putin, Xi does not have any other horse to back. Nor does it wish to see political chaos in Russia – a weak Kremlin is infinitely preferable to a political vacuum there.
As a plus, Russia is still keeping the USA preoccupied in Europe, allowing China to advance its own military plans for Taiwan.