China’s Xi to Visit Putin Under Shadow of War-Crimes Warrant

The Kremlin said that talks would focus on “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.” China’s Foreign Ministry said that Mr. Xi would use the visit to increase the “mutual trust and understanding” between Russia and China, which he said had “established a new paradigm for international relations.”

That push for a “new paradigm” appears to be at the heart of Mr. Xi’s diplomacy push in recent months, as he has tried to project an image as a global statesman who works with all comers, regardless of how they came to power or how they hold it. Most prominently, Mr. Xi has recently courted leaders whose relations with the United States are strained or those openly at odds with it.

He met with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in March, and President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran before that, welcoming the Iranian leader, who has supplied Russia with drones, with a 21-gun salute in Tiananmen Square.

And visiting Saudi Arabia, he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who embraced him with pageantry that stood in stark contrast to the prince’s earlier meeting with President Biden, who had called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its rights record.

Taking up his third term as president, Mr. Xi has pursued a harder stance against what he calls an American effort to block China’s rise. To counter it, he has urged Chinese industries to reduce their reliance on Western technology, hailed China’s growth as proof that it does not need Western politics, and portrayed China as a nation besieged — much as Mr. Putin has done in speeches to Russians.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/world/asia/xi-putin-ukraine-jets.html