"The friendship of the peoples of China and the Soviet Union is everlasting." 1967 Sino-Soviet propaganda poster (via Soviet Visuals).
The U.S. Sanctions Chinese Officials
As you saw on ZeroHedge yesterday, the U.S. sanctioned Chinese officials over their country's treatment of its Uighur minority, after unsuccessfully calling for China to condemn Russia. Our post below explains why China's not condemning Russia, and how some mainstream commenters are myopic about the state of the world outside of the West.
Before we get to that, those who missed our previous post may want to look at why our current #1 name, the Teucrium Wheat Fund (NYSE:WEAT) is climbing due to the crisis in the Ukraine.
The World Versus Russia?
If you follow mainstream commentary about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a common sentiment is that the world is united in its outrage against Russia. For a recent example of this, see former Wall Street Journal corporate news editor and current Meta Platforms, Inc. (NYSE:FB) employee Tom Gara quote tweeting Bloomberg Opinion columnist below.
(Incidentally, Mr. Gara's new employer was recently designated as an "extremist" organization by a Russian court.)
Substantively, though, it's more accurate to say the it's the West versus Russia. The world's two most populous countries, China and India, have refused to join in U.S.-led sanctions and have continued to trade with Russia. For example, India has imported four times as much oil from Russia this month has it did in March of 2021, per the Financial Times.
The Rest Versus The West
While the West has worked to isolate Russia diplomatically and economically, increasingly, not Western countries seem to be drifting away (or, one might say being pushed away) from the U.S. American officials, and their allies in the U.S. media, seem perplexed by this. For example, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested India would put itself on the wrong side of history by accepting discounted Russian oil.
And on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, Margaret Brennan beratingly asked Qin Gang, China's ambassador to the U.S., why China hadn't condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine. One Chinese account on Twitter shared the video of Brennan berating Gang with this comment (translated by Google from the Chinese):
This is not like an educated and disciplined host, more like a bickering pheasant at the head of the village!
A Chinese Journalist Lays It Out
Ambassador Gang was too diplomatic explain to CBS why China has chosen not to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but Chinese Global Times commentator Hu Xijin explained China's position clearly on their social media platform Weibo. Former diplomat Han Yang translated it in this thread on Twitter. In a nutshell, unlike the U.S., China pursues policies in its own interest, rather than attempting to be a moral arbiter for the world.
There you have it. The Chinese are thinking of their own interests, and their competition with us, and they're thinking more than one step ahead. The people running America apparently are not.
