Putin in China to strengthen anti-West coalition

President Vladimir Putin is making a key trip to Russia’s most important ally, China, that will seek to shore up an alliance against the West and celebrate China-Russia ties.

The small city of Heihe sits along China’s border with Russia. Local tourists come here to peek into neighbouring Blagovesh­chensk, just across the river, but there are not many of them.

A tour boat sits idle on the wa­ter, pumping out happy-sounding Chinese songs in an attempt to at­tract customers, but with nobody buying tickets it doesn’t look like it’s going to move all day.

Across the water, a Russian coastguard ship is parked, and officers pass the time doing exer­cises on deck in the autumn sun.

When Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics at the beginning of last year, he and Xi Jinping an­nounced a new “no limits” part­nership between their countries.

Now, with Russia’s leader back in the Chinese capital, China’s state media has been hailing the fruits of this relationship.

In one way, it has been benefi­cial for both governments. They can reassure one another when they are frozen out on the world stage, and images of their hand­shakes are useful to try to show their own people that all is nor­mal, with such powerful friends standing together. However, business activity in their border zones does not appear to live up to the political rhetoric.

A newly-built bridge into Blagoveshchensk from Heihe was celebrated as the symbol of a new era in cross-border trade yet you can observe it for an hour and not see a single vehicle driving in either direction. —BBC

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