China’s Xi Jinping to visit Russia next week, says Kremlin

 The visit comes as China offers to broker peace in Ukraine, an effort that has been met with scepticism in the West.

                                               China’s Xi Jinping to visit Russia next week

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Russia next week for a state visit after he was invited by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

The two-day trip beginning on Monday comes as Beijing offers to broker peace in Ukraine, an effort that has been met with scepticism in the West given China’s diplomatic support for Russia.

“During the talks, they will discuss topical issues of further development of comprehensive partnership relations and strategic cooperation between Russia and China,” the Kremlin said.

“A number of important bilateral documents will be signed,” it added.

China and Russia struck a “no limits” partnership in February 2022, when Putin was visiting Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The two sides have since continued to reaffirm the strength of their ties. Trade between the two countries has soared since the invasion, and China is Russia’s biggest buyer of oil, a key source of revenue for Moscow.

But in recent weeks, China has been trying to play mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

On February 24, exactly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, China released a 12-point position paper on the war, in which it called for a ceasefire and talks between the two parties.

Earlier this week, Beijing also offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine on the Black Sea grain deal, which is due to be extended.

And on Thursday, in a rare phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, China’s foreign minister said Beijing is concerned about the year-old grinding conflict spinning out of control and urged talks on a political solution with Moscow.

Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba that China has “always upheld an objective and fair stance on the Ukraine issue, has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Kuleba later tweeted that he and Qin “discussed the significance of the principle of territorial integrity”.

“I underscored the importance of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s] Peace Formula for ending the aggression and restoring just peace in Ukraine,” wrote Kuleba, who spoke the same day with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Chinese buyout baron’s dissent challenges Beijing

 A loyal Chinese capitalist has turned against the country’s Covid-19 policy. Buyout baron Shan Weijian, ordinarily a public supporter of President Xi Jinping’s tough policies, broke ranks over draconian lockdowns. In a private meeting, he painted a dire picture of economic and political instability in ways that may jeopardise the initial public offering of his private equity firm, PAG. Making an example of him could backfire, though.

Omicron-variant containment measures in cosmopolitan Shanghai have rattled the country’s elite . The griping is getting louder. Wang Sicong, son of billionaire Wang Jianlin, had his Weibo account shut down after he questioned the government’s endorsement of traditional medicines to treat the virus.

Visitors stand near exhibits of rice paddy fields and a screen showing an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China November 11, 2021.

Wang is just a rich kid, but Shan is a symbol of China’s reform success. Caught up in Mao’s Cultural Revolution, he was sent to farm China’s Gobi Desert, but managed to make his way to the United States, studying under now-U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and landing jobs at the World Bank and JPMorgan. PAG manages some $50 billion and has invested in a slew of successful companies.

Shan also publicly backed China’s crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. So when a trained economist like him says that “popular discontent in China is at the highest point in the past 30 years,” as the Financial Times reported, and warns of an economic crash, Chinese people inclined to discount foreign critics might take him more seriously.

In a podcast with Breakingviews in 2019, Shan warned about Chinese hubris. Scepticism of Beijing’s triumphal narrative is evident in financial markets. The country reported rosy first-quarter growth statistics, but the benchmark CSI300 index is down 20% this year and foreign funds are fleeing yuan assets. As lockdowns upend supply chains and suppress consumption, the government is falling back on debt-fueled infrastructure stimulus.

Shan may suffer the same fate as Alibaba (9988.HK) founder Jack Ma did with his financial technology outfit Ant after speaking out: a derailed IPO and endless regulatory headaches. Shan’s implicit political critique will be hard for Beijing to ignore even if his analysis is as hard to dispute as his patriotism. Yet his sentiments are also shared throughout the financial community that China needs to reassure. Beijing may be inclined to listen to him.

Readmore:https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/chinese-buyout-barons-dissent-challenges-beijing-2022-04-29/