China's moment? Putin heads to Beijing after Trump courts Xi

Ostensibly, Russian President Vladimir Putin 's visit to China this week to meet with his counterpart, Xi Jinping , is taking place to mark the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino‑Russian Treaty of Good‑Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation. But the timing of the trip — just days after US President Donald Trump's state visit to Beijing — is noteworthy, and highlights China's influential position in a geopolitical landscape that is increasingly fractured and marked by great power rivalries. Topic

Amid Moscow's isolation from the West over its invasion of Ukraine, China has become Russia's largest trading partner by far, supplying more than a third of its imports and buying more than a quarter of Russian exports. But the partnership reportedly also has military dimensions. A Reuters investigation in July 2025 said Chinese companies allegedly used shell firms to ship drone engines to Russian arms manufacturers as industrial cooling equipment — allegations Beijing denies. Ahead of the Putin-Xi summit, Claus Soong of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Germany told DW that the current geopolitical landscape has placed Beijing in an advantageous position. Both the United States and Russia need China right now, albeit in opposing ways: Washington seeks a strategic rival while Moscow wants a partner with overlapping geopolitical and energy interests. Beijing, meanwhile, does not need to lean towards balancing the US or distancing itself from tensions between Russia and the West, Soong added. Reports: China is quietly fueling Russia's Ukraine war To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Trump was warmly received by Xi and left Beijing on an optimistic note. Putin's visit could in part be aimed at seeking reassurances that any progress in China-US relations does not come at Moscow's expense. For Putin, the immediate priority is to reaffirm his close ties with Xi and to gauge Beijing's current thinking. A more forward-looking question, Soong suggested, is who could act as a credible mediator if Russia were to seek an end to the war in Ukraine. Recent signals — including a more subdued Victory Day parade and continued Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure — suggest Moscow may be experiencing war fatigue. Putin even suggested that the conflict could be nearing a conclusion .

Key points

• Amid Moscow's isolation from the West over its invasion of Ukraine, China has become Russia's largest trading partner by far, supplying more than a third of its imports and buying more than a quart…
• But the partnership reportedly also has military dimensions.
• A Reuters investigation in July 2025 said Chinese companies allegedly used shell firms to ship drone engines to Russian arms manufacturers as industrial cooling equipment — allegations Beijing denies.
• Ahead of the Putin-Xi summit, Claus Soong of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Germany told DW that the current geopolitical landscape has placed Beijing in an advantageous posit…
• Both the United States and Russia need China right now, albeit in opposing ways: Washington seeks a strategic rival while Moscow wants a partner with overlapping geopolitical and energy interests.