Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping once again put their "no-limits friendship" on display during the Russian president's second visit to Beijing in seven months on Thursday, May 16 and Friday, May 17. The trip marked Putin's 43rd meeting with the Chinese president since Xi came to power in March 2013, a record in the history of the two countries' relationship.
This visit was the first time Putin had chosen China for his first foreign visit after being elected president again since he first took office in 2000. It was a way of paying homage to Xi, who visited Moscow in March 2013 and again in March 2023, right after being sworn in as president of the People's Republic of China.
If the 18 phone conversations between the two leaders, including to celebrate their respective birthdays, are included, hardly two months go by without the two of them having direct discussions. These two political animals, who could hardly be described as warm-hearted, even like to have toasts and chat informally on the steps of the Kremlin when Putin escorts his guest back to his car.
Genuine closeness
Until 2022, most Western observers felt that this closeness was merely a façade and that the relationship between the two countries was too unbalanced. Ten years earlier, they had claimed that Xi was a "new Gorbachev." Yet there was nothing of the sort. Xi was no reformer, and his closeness to Putin was genuine.
The two men set the tone when they met on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4, 2022, and then again in the Kremlin 13 months later. Together, they intend to build a new, post-Western world order. Yet this friendship is not obvious, not only because of the mistrust and even hostility that has long prevailed between the two countries, but also because of the fundamental differences between the two septuagenarians.
Although they were born less than a year apart (October 1952 for Putin, June 1953 for Xi), it would be hard to imagine two more dissimilar backgrounds. Putin was born into a modest family, studied law and, after joining the KGB, was sent to East Germany in 1985. Interestingly, his mother had him baptized despite the risks it involved. By comparison, Xi enjoyed a privileged childhood. Until the age of 9, he was one of the children of one of the country's most powerful men, a close associate of Mao. All that changed in 1962, when his father, accused of having allowed the publication of a book that could seen as a veiled criticism of Mao, was arrested and sent to the hinterlands of a province from which he only returned in 1978.
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