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10:42 11.05.2025 •
Chairman Xi and President Putin at Red Square during the Victory Parade on May 9, 2025.
Photo: RIA Novosti
Chinese and Russian presidents to signal strength of their alliance in Moscow meeting, stresses ‘The Financial Times’.
Xi Jinping has drawn a parallel between modern-day US “hegemony” and the “arrogant fascist forces” of 80 years ago, ahead of Thursday’s Moscow summit with Vladimir Putin and Second World War Victory Day celebrations.
The Chinese and Russian presidents are using the meeting to signal the strength of their alliance against the US-led international order.
Putin hailed Xi as his “dear friend” on Thursday as the summit, the first between the Russian and Chinese leaders since Trump took office in January and stepped up the trade war, got under way. Putin added that he would visit China this year for celebrations marking the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the second world war. Xi added that China and Russia would work together to “decisively defend the interests and rights of our states and all developing countries… form an equal, balanced multi-polar world and inclusive, accessible economic globalisation”.
Prior to his arrival in Moscow, Xi invoked the historical alignment between Russia and China, writing in an article published in media in both countries that “the just forces of the world, including China and the Soviet Union, fought bravely and defeated the arrogant fascist forces side-by-side”.
He added: “Eighty years later, unilateralism, hegemony and bullying are extremely harmful. Humanity is once again at the crossroads.”
Xi did not mention Ukraine in his article. Instead, he attacked the “war criminals” of the second world war, describing China and Russia as “constructive forces in maintaining global strategic stability” and calling for the upholding of the UN Charter.
Moscow struck a similar note in the run-up to the summit, which Russia’s foreign ministry said would “send a powerful signal against attempts to rewrite the results of the Second World War”.
Europe was “preparing for war with Russia like the Third Reich once did”, the ministry added, according to state newswire TASS.
The two leaders will have to overcome challenges, however, as China looks to improve relations with Europe after being hit with US tariffs. Beijing also fears a Trump-Putin détente could affect its partnership with Russia.
Xi attended a Red Square Parade for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Second World War Victory alongside 28 other foreign leaders including Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić and Slovakia’s Robert Fico.
The Kremlin wants the image of Xi observing Russia’s military might to highlight how it has overcome years of western attempts to isolate Moscow. Putin has justified the war through comparisons of Kyiv’s government to Nazi Germany.
Beijing has not openly taken sides in the war but has helped Moscow weather sanctions, with bilateral trade soaring from $147bn in 2021 to $245bn last year.
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