Putin to Make State Visit to China     05/14 06:06

   

   BEIJING (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day state 
visit to China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, in the 
latest show of unity between the two authoritarian allies against the U.S.-led 
Western liberal global order.

   Putin will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his visit starting on 
Thurday, the ministry said, saying the two leaders would discuss "cooperation 
in various fields of bilateral relations ... as well as international and 
regional issues of common concern." No details were mentioned.

   The Kremlin in a statement confirmed the trip and said Putin was going on 
Xi's invitation. It said that this will be Putin's first foreign trip since he 
was sworn in as president and began his fifth term in office.

   China has backed Russia politically in the conflict in Ukraine and has 
continued to export machine tools, electronics and other items seen as 
contributing to the Russian war effort, without actually exporting weaponry.

   China is also a major export market for energy supplies that keep the 
Kremlin's coffers full.

   China has sought to project itself as a neutral party in the conflict, but 
has declared a "no limits" relationship with Russia in opposition to the West. 
The sides have also held a series of joint military drills and China has 
consistently opposed economic sanctions against Russia in response to its now 
two-year-old campaign of conquest against Ukraine.

   The two continent-sized authoritarian states are increasingly in dispute 
with democracies and NATO while seeking to gain influence in Africa, the Middle 
East and South America.

   Putin's visit comes just days ahead of Monday's inauguration of William Lai 
Ching-te as the next president of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy 
that China claims as its own territory and threatens to annex by force if 
necessary.

   Xi returned last week from a five-day visit to Europe, including stops in 
Hungary and Serbia, countries viewed as close to Russia. The trip, Xi's first 
to the continent in five years, was seen as an attempt to increase China's 
influence and drive a wedge between the EU and NATO on one side, and a 
yet-to-be-defined bloc of authoritarian nations on the other underpinned by 
Chinese economic influence that has been wavering amid a housing crisis and 
dramatically slower domestic economic growth.