Charap, Samuel, John Drennan, and Pierre Noël

Abstract
By accommodating each other’s strategic interests, Russia and China have achieved an effective partnership despite significant imbalances between them.
The Ukraine crisis and the downturn in Russia–West relations that came in its wake have compelled Russia to turn decisively towards China. Deprived of other options, Moscow has found itself in the position of demandeur visà-vis Beijing, creating an increasingly imbalanced bilateral relationship. Nonetheless, Russia and China have avoided any turbulence that might have resulted from this asymmetry through mutual accommodation and compromise. Both sides devote significant effort and political capital to managing their bilateral relations effectively; they take a pragmatic, behindthe-scenes approach to resolving disputes and publicly stress the positive elements in the relationship. These ‘relationship management’ efforts have helped to mitigate the potential tensions created by Russia’s relatively weaker position post-2014, leading China not to abuse its stronger position. But the positive dynamic in their relationship is also a natural outgrowth of their shared views on the international order, in particular resistance to US unilateralism and alleged American interference in their political systems.
There are limits to the Russia–China relationship, however. China will not make Russia the centrepiece of its foreign policy, which is increasingly global and multidimensional. Furthermore, the relationship with the US will remain far more central to China’s global and regional interests, both strategic and economic. While historic Russian mistrust of China has abated in recent years, elites in Moscow prize their foreign-policy independence and thus continue to search for additional partners in the Asia-Pacific, including some of China’s regional rivals. Ultimately, both countries’ leaders are unsentimental pragmatists, and when their strategic calculus differs, there are limits to how far they will go to sacrifice for the other.
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