Russia hates China and always has. This is a long-standing point of relations between Russia and China that many in the Western world do not understand, is something that I have covered at Shoebat.com for a while, and can be explained simply in that Russia’s power as an empire comes from her ability to control Siberia, and China is the biggest material threat to that control because of her location, size, and historic disregard for human life or boundaries. This also explains Russia’s love-hate relationship with Japan, for while Russia does not trust Japan, she also wants to use her to keep China under control, especially since the Japanese have a deep-seated hatred of the Chinese and invading their nation.
Russia will talk a good line about how he is a great ally of China, but when she is asked to test her alliance, she will find every reason that she can as to why she is unable to help China, and then will take measures to prevent China from being able to help herself. One example of this behavior is the Russian attitude towards the spread of COVID-19, where underneath the layers of talk, Russia has responded by sealing off the Russo-Chinese border, not to mention the veritable arrests, interrogations, and forced deportations of Chinese nationals. As Asia News reports, the Russo-Chinese border remains sealed.
Hundreds of people had been stuck in isolation and can now return to their residences; others are traveling to return to work after more than two months on lockdown. The airport is also operational again with over 100 commercial flights. Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, was closed on January 23rd.
Meanwhile, the border between China and Russia in Heilongjiang was closed yesterday. In recent days, 87 cases of imported Covid-19 were recorded in this province. Of these, 84 were from Russia. At the beginning of the month, Russia had closed all flights to and from China. In this way, the border between Vladivostok and Suifenhe had become one of the few passages between the two countries, used by Chinese who wanted to return to Russia from their homeland.
“Imported” infections have become very risky in China, with fears of a relapse of the epidemic, just as the country returns to normal. According to the National Health Commission, until yesterday there were 1045 positive cases in China imported from different parts of the world. (source)
Russia is fine that China is having problems with COVID-19. She will not say it, but she will use this as an opportunity to distance herself from China just as the US is using it to divest manufacturing from her and transfer it to India and other nations.
China is going to find herself as she has throughout history, which is alone, isolated, and eventually facing internal problems that cripple her ability to respond to outside threats, and at which time she will be overwhelmed and overrun again.