Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Joe Biden is the worst US president since Jimmy Carter. He specialises in betraying America’s friends and rewarding its enemies, in humiliating the West and empowering the Global South’s autocracies.

His underlying arrogance has been exacerbated by his deteriorating physical and mental condition. He acts like a blundering, interfering imperial overlord plagued by the shortest of attention spans. He sends out mixed signals, sucks up to random rogues, relentlessly bullies allies, micromanages complex conflicts from a distance and a position of ignorance, and inevitably angers both sides of every argument. Under his leadership, the world’s supreme economic, technological and military power exudes weakness, self-doubt and moral uncertainty.

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin should have little to celebrate, yet they are holding a sickeningly triumphalist summit this week, emboldened by Biden’s pusillanimity towards anti-Western forces at home and abroad, and his strategic and tactical blunders. The China-Russia-Iran-North Korea axis is on the march again. America’s reputation in the emerging world is at its lowest ebb since the 1970s: outside of the West, strength, resilience and determination matter, and nobody respects cowardice and vacillation.

Biden double-crossed Britain over Brexit, taking the EU and Ireland’s side, displaying contempt for the supposed “special relationship”. He helped re-establish the Stone Age Taliban regime in Afghanistan. His botched withdrawal surely encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine, as did Biden’s ludicrous claim that “a minor incursion” may not trigger a strong response.

He has subsequently given the heroic Ukrainians just enough to defend themselves, but not to win. Many Republicans acted abominably, but the problem is now cross-party: there is no way that even a re-elected Biden would fund Ukraine to the tune of $60 billion a year in a forever war. Kyiv has already been sold down the river. The latest package was probably Biden’s last major intervention: after giving Volodymyr Zelensky false hope, he will eventually embrace a negotiated settlement that will effectively hand victory to the axis of evil.

Biden’s betrayal of Israel has been even more egregious: he has simultaneously helped it in unprecedented ways through gifts of weaponry and direct protection, while hobbling it, seeking to control it and ultimately sabotaging its war effort. In a staggeringly short-termist move to appease his woke base, Biden has bought into the toxic Left-wing dogma that effectively criminalises all wars (though only when waged by democracies), even those of self-defence. He constantly questions whether Israel has breached human rights, even though its civilian-death-to-combatant-killed ratio is superior to anything America ever achieved.

The US president has handed billions to Iran, the world’s terror financier and a provider of weapons to Putin, and failed to adequately enforce sanctions. He has rewarded Qatar for continuing to harbour Hamas. He has mishandled Saudi Arabia, fracturing the anti-Iran coalition. He tolerates Recep Erdoğan’s treachery, even when the Turkish demagogue announces he is treating Hamas members in his hospitals, making a mockery of Nato unity.

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America’s 1,000 soldiers in Niger are being expelled, bolstering Russia’s influence in West Africa and trashing US counter-terrorism initiatives in the Sahel. Non-aligned rising players, such as the UAE, are gaining ground in Africa as Washington’s power drains. Biden’s only genuine interest appears to be containing China over Taiwan, but why would anybody trust that America will be steadfast, given his track record? How can Xi take Biden seriously?

What is most frustrating is that Russia and China should be in the midst of an existential crisis, and an imaginary Reagan-esque US president should be moving in for the metaphorical kill.

Despite its advances in AI and electric cars, China’s economy has been weakened by its centrally-directed credit allocation, never-ending real estate bubbles, the savagery of Covid lockdowns, its suppression of independent entrepreneurship and its demographic implosion. It is no longer certain its economy will ever overtake America’s.

Javier Milei, Argentina’s superb president, has quit China’s orbit, dealing a blow to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. Russia is in terminal decline, and has suffered a stupendous economic and human hit from its despicable invasion of Ukraine. Yet both autocracies have made the most of Biden’s baleful administration.

Putin has turned himself into a Chinese vassal, selling energy and commodities at knockdown prices in return for consumer goods, electronics and specialised components for its war effort. Sino-Russian trade surged 26 per cent last year, Chinese firms have captured the majority of Russia’s car market and parts of the Russian economy are becoming renminbi-fied.

The Chinese have delayed Siberia 2, a proposed massive gas pipeline, to force Russia to cut its prices further. But while it has come at a steep price, Putin has been saved by his unequal relationship with Xi, and the Chinese have strengthened their geopolitical empire and their alternative financial system. This week’s summit will unveil even greater cooperation, partly to fend off US sanctions on Chinese banks (making trade with Russia harder) and electric vehicle exports.

Both autocracies must be laughing at how Soviet-era anti-Israel propaganda – anti-Semitic slogans and blood libels – has gone mainstream 50 years on, how a brainwashed neo-communist Western youth hates a system that has made them the most privileged in human history, and how immigration has been so terribly managed in Europe.

They will also be toasting our inability to take war seriously. Putin’s appointment of Andrei Belousov, an economist, as defence minister confirms that his priority lies in out-producing armaments to defeat a useless West. American and European munition stockpiles are running low, yet there is no sense of urgency, no genuine rearmament.

The axis of evil is also stepping up its spying and terrorism. Iran’s agents are all over the West. The Wagner Group stands accused of having committed arson in London. There have been multiple arrests for spying for China. Britain must up its game, but Putin and Xi are clearly being encouraged by Biden’s weakness. His presidency has been a catastrophe for the free world.

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Defying West, Russia's Putin set to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Beijing visit on Thursday is likely to be light on hard deals but will mark the start of his new presidential term with a show of support from his most powerful political partner, Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Putin's two-day mission is expected to highlight the pair's vaunted "no limits" partnership in defiance from pressure from the United States over Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed Putin's trip on Tuesday, saying Xi and Putin would exchange views on ties and "international and regional issues of common concern".

While diplomats and analysts expect Putin to push Xi for further support for Russia's war economy, from machines and chemicals to help its military industries to more discounted oil and gas purchases, Putin's trip is likely to be heavily symbolic of a shared world view centred on countering a U.S.-led order.

"China is Russia's strategic partner – this is the path chosen by the president of Russia and the leader of China – and nothing is going to change that no matter what the West tries to say or do," a Russian official said on condition of anonymity.

In an interview with China's news agency Xinhua published early on Wednesday, Putin backed China's plan for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, saying Beijing had a full understanding of what lay behind it.

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"In Beijing, they truly understand its root causes and its global geopolitical meaning," Putin said, according to a Russian language transcript published on a Kremlin website.

Putin will also discuss economic ties with China's premier Li Qiang and visit Harbin, a northeast city with historic Russian connections.

Putin's arrival follows a mission to Beijing late last month from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in part to warn China's top diplomat Wang Yi against deepening military support for Russia.

But despite the "no limits" relationship - declared by Putin and Xi in Beijing just days before the launch of the invasion in February 2022 - China has so far avoided providing actual weapons and ammunition for Russia's war effort.

And despite initial internal U.S. talks about sanctioning Chinese banks, U.S. officials said last month they did not yet have such plans.

"I'm sure Putin would like to have China's help in getting Russia over the line in Ukraine," said Alexander Neill, a Singapore-based defence analyst.

"What more China can do without incurring action from Washington will be a very closely scrutinised element of this mission," said Neill.

SUPPORT FOR ISOLATED MOSCOW

Other analysts said just the Xi and Putin meeting itself carried weight.

"The very act of receiving Putin by Beijing - on its own - is already a form of support to Russia since China is the sole major country left that has not isolated Moscow," said James Char, a security scholar at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

"China needs to have Russia on its side to subvert the U.S.-led world order and in its long-term struggle with the U.S. for geopolitical supremacy."

Chinese state press reports on Wednesday said Putin was on a full state visit, with some Chinese commentators stressing the importance of "head of state diplomacy" in the further strengthening relationship.

More broadly, other limits remain on the relationship, however.

Char notes a lingering mutual mistrust - the one-time ideological communist allies split at the height of the Cold War - while a senior Russian source notes scepticism among Russia's elites over becoming China's "resource appendage".

Russian oil arrivals into China, including via pipelines under long-term contracts, rose one quarter last year to a record 2.14 million barrels per day (bpd), making Moscow its top supplier for a second straight year.

Data analysed by Reuters shows China saved roughly $4.34 billion in the first nine months of 2023 buying discounted Russian oil.

China's Russian gas imports last year soared nearly 40% from 2022 at 33.7 billion cubic metres, according to Reuters calculations of customs figures and data from consultancy RBAC. Despite the rise, Kremlin-owned energy giant Gazprom is still struggling to fill the gap of lost European gas sales.

Putin arrives in Beijing seeking greater support for war effort

Beijing said President Xi will exchange views with Putin on bilateral ties 

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Thursday to meet with counterpart Xi Jinping as he seeks greater support from Beijing for his war effort in Ukraine and his isolated economy.

This is Putin's first trip abroad since his March re-election and the second in just over six months to China, an economic lifeline for Russia after the West hit it with unprecedented sanctions over its military offensive in Ukraine.

Putin was greeted by Chinese officials and an honour guard as he got off his plane at around dawn for the two-day state visit, Russian television footage showed.

The Russian leader's arrival came hours after he hailed his country's troops for advancing on "all fronts" on the battlefield in Ukraine, following a major new ground assault.

Xi, who returned last week from a three-nation tour of Europe, has rebuffed Western criticism of his country's ties with Moscow, enjoying cheap Russian energy imports and access to vast natural resources, including steady gas shipments via the Power of Siberia pipeline.

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It is a relationship the leaders described in 2022 as one of "no limits".

"This is Putin's first trip after his inauguration, and it is therefore intended to show that Sino-Russian relations are moving up another level," independent Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.

"Not to mention the visibly sincere personal friendship between the two leaders."

But as the economic partnership comes under close scrutiny in the West, Chinese banks fearing US sanctions that might cut them off from the global financial system have begun turning the screws on Russian businesses.

The Kremlin this week said the two leaders would discuss their "comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation" as well as "define key areas of development of Russian-Chinese cooperation and exchange views on international and regional issues".

Putin, in an interview published in Xinhua ahead of his visit, also hailed Beijing's "genuine desire" to help resolve the Ukraine crisis.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi in Beijing last month, warned China's support for Russia's "brutal war of aggression" in Ukraine had helped Russia ramp up production of rockets, drones and tanks -- while stopping short of direct arms exports.

China claims to be a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict and the foreign ministry in Beijing said the two leaders will exchange views on "bilateral ties, cooperation in various fields, and international and regional issues of common interest".

- Transactions slow -

China-Russia trade has boomed since the Ukraine invasion and hit $240 billion in 2023, according to Chinese customs figures.

But after Washington vowed to go after financial institutions that facilitate Moscow, Chinese exports to Russia dipped during March and April, down from a surge early in the year.

An executive order by President Joe Biden in December permits secondary sanctions on foreign banks that deal with Russia's war machine, allowing the US Treasury to cut them out of the dollar-led global financial system.

That, coupled with recent efforts to rebuild fractured ties with the United States, may make Beijing reluctant to openly push more cooperation with Russia -- despite what Moscow may want, analysts said.

Eight people from both countries involved in cross-border trade told AFP in recent days that several Chinese banks have halted or slowed transactions with Russian clients.

According to Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, the banks are "operating on better-be-safe-than-sorry principles, which reduces the volume of transactions".

"Finding out whether the payments are related to the Russian military-industrial complex... is creating a considerable challenge for Chinese companies and banks," he told AFP.

Putin's post-election trip to Beijing echoes Xi's own visit to Russia after his re-anointing as leader last year.

Experts expect this week's highly symbolic meeting to result in toasts to the "no limits" partnership, as well as some deals signed and pledges to increase trade.

The two leaders are set to sign a joint declaration following the talks, the Kremlin said, and attend an evening marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Putin will also meet Premier Li Qiang -- China's number two official -- and travel to the northeastern city of Harbin for a trade and investment expo.