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Orange Wang

Cao Jiaxuan

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented back-to-back conversations with his US and Russian counterparts have shed new light on how the three powers are positioning themselves.
The Chinese leader’s separate talks on Wednesday with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin also reveal their attempts to stabilise ties as they prepare for in-person summits and grapple with mounting headwinds at home.
However, analysts expressed mixed views on whether – and how – China could play a bigger balancing role in an era defined by great power rivalry.
While it was not the first time a Chinese leader had spoken with US and Russian counterparts in short succession, it was the first time such conversations had happened in a single day.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, characterised the two high-level conversations as “rare but understandable” and mostly a result of “energy economics” and their negative influence on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
During his video call with Xi on Wednesday, Putin underscored that Russia was “the leading supplier of energy resources” to China, adding that “our energy partnership is mutually beneficial and truly strategic”.
Two days earlier, Trump stated that, as part of a new US-India trade deal, New Delhi had agreed to halt purchases of Russian oil, which had helped fuel Russia’s wartime economy.
The Kremlin later insisted that India had not agreed to stop buying Russian oil.


Trump posted on social media on Wednesday that he and Xi had discussed “the purchase of oil and gas by China from the United States” during their phone conversation hours after the Chinese leader’s talks with Putin.
Both Washington and Beijing are bracing for key political events.
The US midterm elections in November are set to test the Trump administration, as intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations – particularly in Minnesota – and the fallout from the latest release of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein have fuelled speculation that Republicans could lose key seats in the US Congress.
Meanwhile, Beijing is doubling down on economic resilience and anti-corruption drives – most notably within the military – ahead of next year’s 21st National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which is expected to lead to a major leadership reshuffle.
Xi’s talks with Trump and Putin also came one day before the expiration of the US-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty known as New Start.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Thursday that China regarded the treaty’s end as “regrettable” and called on the US to “resume dialogue with Russia on strategic stability”. But he did not comment on whether Beijing had raised the issue in the talks with Trump and Putin.
According to Beijing, Xi told Putin that China and Russia should work together to maintain global “strategic stability”, a Cold War-era term referring to a state in which no party has an incentive to initiate a nuclear first strike.
Trump said the topics discussed during his conversation with Xi included “military” but did not elaborate. He added that their “long and thorough” call covered Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as “the current situation with Iran”.
There has been growing debate about whether Trump envisions a world where the US, China, and Russia each maintain their own spheres of influence.
Ahead of his October summit with Xi in Busan, South Korea, Trump floated the idea of the US and China forming a so-called G2, or Group of Two.




However, Beijing has been largely unmoved by that rhetoric. Chinese analysts said Beijing was positioning itself as a stabilising and balancing force in an increasingly multipolar world.
“It’s Xi who had contact with both Trump and Putin on the same day. Could it mean that Beijing positions itself as the pivotal, central element in the great power triangle? Perhaps,” said Artyom Lukin, a professor at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.
However, Shi of Renmin University said China was unlikely to be a balancer.
“Rather, it has been and will be a weight on Russia’s [side of the] scale. All Western countries have always regarded China as a destabilising force,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned last month that the world had entered a risky new age of great power rivalry and called on middle powers to “hedge” to survive.
In recent months, the leaders of France, Ireland, Finland and Britain – all US allies – have visited Beijing, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez soon to follow.
Jia Qingguo, an international relations professor at Peking University, warned that US allies could pose a key risk to China-US ties over the next two years.
“Most US allies do not agree with Trump’s China policy, which they see as lacking principles and not tough enough,” he wrote in an article published by the university’s Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding on Wednesday.
“At the same time, driven by their own interests, they believe they need to take steps to push China-US confrontation in ways that advance their agendas.”


Still, he said he expected Trump’s second presidential term could create “a rare opportunity” for stabilising China-US relations.
Trump said that his phone call with Xi touched on his planned April trip to China, which he said he “very much” looked forward to.
Still, the Trump administration’s support for a critical minerals trading bloc and a Panama court’s ruling against a Hong Kong port operator showed its continued interest in curbing Chinese influence in areas it considers to be national security priorities.
According to Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov on Wednesday, Putin has accepted Xi’s invitation for an official visit to China in the first half of the year.
He said the Russian leader was also ready to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in China in November, an event that also came up in the Chinese president’s talk with Trump.
There is mounting speculation that Xi, Trump and Putin could make a rare appearance together at the gathering in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Additional reporting by Laura Zhou


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Beijing holds rare same-day talks with Kremlin and White House as powers face headwinds at home, energy uncertainties and nuclear pact’s end


Beijing holds rare same-day talks with Kremlin and White House as powers face headwinds at home, energy uncertainties and nuclear pact’s end.


What Xi’s calls with Trump and Putin reveal about China’s balancing act

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Beijing holds rare same-day talks with Kremlin and White House as powers face headwinds at home, energy uncertainties and nuclear pact’s end

Beijing holds rare same-day talks with Kremlin and White House as powers face headwinds at home, energy uncertainties and nuclear pact’s end