Honor Guard, Cooperation Agreements And A 35 Percent Rise In Russian Oil Exports To China In Q1: Beijing Is Telling The World It Does Not Choose Sides. It Chooses Itself.
According to NPR, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, May 20, in a ceremony that included an honor guard inspection and bilateral talks followed by the signing of cooperation agreements. The visit comes just days after US President Donald Trump’s own trip to Beijing; a sequence that experts describe as deliberate.
“The message is clearly one that China maintains friendship and strategic partnership with whichever power it likes, and the USA is just one of them,” said Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.
China became Russia’s top trading partner following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has maintained trade ties with the Kremlin despite sanctions by the US and Europe, and has ignored Western demands to stop supplying high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries. Russia’s oil exports to China grew 35 percent in the first quarter of 2026.
Putin described Russia-China relations as a “stabilising force” in global politics and said cooperation had reached an “unprecedented level” of trust. Bilateral trade between the two countries has long exceeded $200 billion.
Trump came first. Putin came second. Xi received both. Beijing is not choosing sides. It is demonstrating that it does not have to.
To check out our previous coverage on the Trump-Xi summit and global geopolitics, read our articles here.
