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Sino-Russian agricultural fund may finance 17 projects in Far East
August 3, 2016 TASS

The fund will focus on supporting projects aimed at producing agricultural products as well as creation of necessary infrastructure.

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Participants in the 2015 Eastern Economic Forum at Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island. Source: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

Sino-Russian fund of agricultural development is exploring the possibility of financing 17 agricultural enterprises in Russia’s Far East, a representative of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East said, adding that the decision to provide four projects with funds may be taken soon.

"A total of 17 agricultural enterprises in the Far East considered for financing by the agricultural fund, are in the prior list of projects. At the moment decisions on financing four projects with a total of 32 bln rubles ($480 mln) worth of investment, are about to be made," the Ministry said, adding that the first investment projects to be backed by the Russian-Chinese fund, will be announced at the second Eastern Economic Forum.

The fund will focus on supporting projects aimed at producing agricultural products as well as creation of necessary infrastructure, the source said, with the goal of satisfying local demand for those products being an indispensable prerequisite.
 
Eastern Economic Forum key venue for boosting Russia-China efforts — ministry
August 10, 13:15 UTC+3

The 2nd Eastern Economic Forum will be held on September 2-3 in Vladivostok
BEIJING, August 10. /TASS/. The upcoming Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) is an important framework for promoting Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Far East, a source in the Chinese Foreign Ministry told TASS on Wednesday.

"The EEF is a new and important venue for fostering Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Far East. The Chinese side is prepared to take an active part in developing Russia’s Far East on mutually beneficial terms. We intend to expand cooperation, utilize all available advantages and encourage the development of cross-border partnerships," the ministry said.

"We believe that the 2nd Eastern Economic Forum will turn out to be a great success and we are confident that Russian and Chinese companies will achieve new results," the source said. "The Chinese side is actively gearing up to send its high-level representative to the forum and is ready to actively encourage Chinese companies to take part in the forum."

The 2nd Eastern Economic Forum will be held on September 2-3 in Vladivostok. Over 2,400 people from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Australia, the United States and Singapore are expected to take part in the forum to discuss opportunities for investors, vehicles and instruments for supporting entrepreneurs, as well as infrastructure and energy projects. The first Eastern Economic Forum was held in Vladivostok in September 2015. More than 80 large investment contracts valued at over 1.3 trillion rubles ($20.32 billion) were signed there.
 
Number of Chinese tourists to Russian Transbaikal region up 62.8%
(Xinhua)
Updated:August 29, 2016

MOSCOW - Over 5,400 Chinese tourists visited Russian Transbaikal region on a visa-free exchange basis in the first half of the year, up 62.8 percent year on year, the Russian news agency TASS reported Monday.

According to the agency, the local authorities are working on a project to develop tourism between 2017 and 2025 by improving infrastructure and spa complex, and seek to attract tourists from other parts of the country and overseas.

In recent years, the number of tourists visiting Transbaikal region has been on the rise, and 99 percent of them are Chinese, the report said.

The most popular tour sites are its mineral springs, Orthodox churches and monasteries of Chita.

Over 1 million tourists from China visited Russia in 2015, spending nearly $1 billion, according to data from the Moscow tourism department.
 
Chinese companies place high priority on Eastern Economic Forum — expert
August 12, 20:34 UTC+3

The second Eastern Economic Forum will be held in Vladivostok on September 2-3
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BEIJING, August 12. /TASS/. Chinese investors and companies assign high priority to the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) to be hosted by Russia in September, Deputy Secretary-General of China Overseas Development Association He Zhenwei told TASS on Friday.

"We attach great importance to this event (EEF) since Russian leaders are expected to be there. As far as companies are concerned, they expect to acquire better understanding of the regional policy pursued by Russia and specific features of Advance Development Territories (ADT) operations on the Forum sidelines," He Zhenwei said. "Chinese companies also hope to meet heads of Russian regions and establish contacts with them. One more task is to find business partners," he added.

Companies also intend to examine specific investment projects during the EEF, He Zhenwei said. "We need specific investment projects on construction of new hubs, upgrade of transport facilities, construction of roads and enterprises," he added.

The second Eastern Economic Forum will be held in Vladivostok on September 2-3.
 
Moscow and Beijing are developing a new passenger aircraft with a super flight range. According to the manufacturer, the aircraft will compete with Western air carriers, Boeing and Airbus, despite the fact that the new project is currently not in high demand by the customers, according to AeroTelegraph.

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The failed Tupolev Tu334 and COMAC ARJ21 share a lot in common; dated technology, structural issues, and unrealistic goals. Unlike the Tu334, the ARJ21 is still expected to fly commercially, for now at least


Moscow and Beijing are developing a new passenger aircraft with a super flight range. According to the manufacturer, the aircraft will compete with Western air carriers, Boeing and Airbus, despite the fact that the new project is currently not in high demand by the customers, according to AeroTelegraph.

It has become known that the construction of the aircraft will take place in China, “closer to the markets,” Stephan Ayzelin wrote for AeroTelegraph.

The Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and China's Comac plan to create an aircraft with two jet engines which would be able to travel for more than 12 thousand kilometers and accommodate 280 passengers.

The first models of the jets will be sold in the years 2025-2027. According to the report, the preliminary cost of the aircraft will be 200-260 million dollars.



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Talks between China and Russia regarding the creation of such an aircraft have been ongoing for a long time.
In June 2016, the two countries signed an agreement to start work on the project. The United Aircraft Corporation and Comac decided to manufacture the aircraft in China, in the suburbs of Shanghai Pudong, justifying this “closeness to the most important export markets.”


Thus, Beijing and Moscow are seeking to compete with two main rivals: Airbus and Boeing companies.
Until now, Russia and China had only aircraft of medium and low flight distances; hence the new aircraft is designed to compensate for that.


“However, for the production of the aircraft, there will be a need for Western technology, until the time that Russia gets sufficiently powerful engines. Till then it will be supplied by Rolls Royce and General Electric,” according to AeroTelegraph.


The Russo-Chinese project may well prove to be successful and attract customers, including Western buyers, as it was evidenced by the example of the Sukhoi Superjet.

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However, most of the orders come from “close to the Russian state airline,” the demand for them is not very large, even in developing countries. That is why Moscow and Beijing may go to lowering the prices.

As evidenced by a poll on the website AeroTelegraph, 43% of readers believe that the future of the Russo-Chinese plane will not be successful in the market, 26% believe that the project will “certainly” be successful, whereas 31% remain “undecided”.
 
Russia and China: Shifting From Neutrality to More Support in Vital Conflicts
29.08.2016

Russia and China are to hold join military drills in the South China Sea, a key source of tension between Beijing and other countries; meanwhile, China has announced that “the time is right” for it to enter the Syrian crisis. The Russian media suggests why the two are shifting their positions from neutrality to more support in these conflicts.

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© SPUTNIK/ SERGEY GUNEEV
Towards an Alliance? Current State and Prospects of Russia-China Friendship

Last week Vladimir Matveyev, a spokesman for the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet confirmed that Russia and China have agreed to hold their planned joint drills in the South China Sea on September 12-19.

The exercises would focus on organized efforts to protect merchant ships in the South China Sea. There will also be landings on islands, the spokesman added.

In July, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said the drills were “not directed against third countries.”

However, some Chinese analysts have interpreted Russia’s willingness to take part in the exercises as an endorsement of Chinese claims in South China Sea maritime territorial disputes.

On August 18, Chinese English-language newspaper The Global Times reported that “the time is right for the Chinese military to contribute more to ending the Syrian crisis”, following reports that a Chinese military delegation had visited Damascus to talk about military cooperation and humanitarian aid.

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© AFP 2016/ JUNG YEON-JE
Rear Admiral Guan Youfei (C), director of Foreign Affairs Office of China's National Defence Ministry, speaks during annual working-level talks with South Korea at the Defence Ministry in Seoul on January 15, 2016

Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, Director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of China's Central Military Commission, met Fahad Jassim al-Freij, Syrian Defense Minister, in Damascus.

Both sides agreed to further cooperate on personnel training and humanitarian aid from the Chinese military.

Chinese Ministry of National Defense then said that China has played an active role in seeking a political solution to the Syrian crisis and supporting Syria's independence and autonomy, and the Chinese military is willing to strengthen cooperation with its Syrian counterparts.

Guan also met with a Russian general heading its Syrian reconciliation center in Damascus on "issues of common interests," the ministry said, without elaborating.



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© AP PHOTO/ WARFAREWW
Washington's Conundrum in Syria: Russia, Iran and China Team Up

The above prompted various media suggestions why the two countries are shifting their positions from neutrality to more support in these conflicts.

Russian online news service Regnum suggested that for Beijing it was the need to demonstrate that there is no “worldwide denunciation” of its position in the South China Sea territorial dispute. And that the great powers are not unanimous in their support of the US, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and other China’s opponents in this conflict.

“The US has successfully tested its technique of shaping a “powerful and fearful rogue state” out of Russia in the mass media two years ago. And China is now concerned that Washington will want to apply this scenario towards it,” says its analytical piece on the issue.

That is why, it further suggests, Beijing now needs certain landmark gestures from Moscow which would demonstrate that Russia has changed its neutral position to the one close to Chinese.


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© AFP 2016/ KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV
Russia, China to See Multiple High-Level Meetings by End of 2016 - Russian Envoy

Diplomatic rhetoric is not enough here, it says, but joint military maneuvers in disputed waters — is the best gesture for all the observers.

The author further suggests that in return, “China should have offered a very serious prize to Russia.” And “such a prize” might be the readiness of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to straightforwardly and demonstratively join the Russian-Syrian-Iranian coalition in Syria.

This is what Moscow urgently needs right now, it says, due to some political reasons.

“There is shifting from neutrality in exchange for the shifting from neutrality,” the author notes.

“Joining the conflicts on the “right” side ensures the cracking of isolation: Russia’s isolation in the Syrian conflict and China’s isolation in the South China Sea conflict,” the article says.

It further adds that such a “construction” keeps within traditions of the Eastern politics – both Middle Eastern and Far Eastern.

@TaiShang @ChineseTiger1986 @AndrewJin @cirr @Dungeness @long_
@vostok @Sinopakfriend
@Beast @xunzi @S10 @j20blackdragon @Fattyacids @Chinese-Dragon
 
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This is a logical move. Both Russia and China can take on USA and its allies in the region and for economic development, they can benefit from the trade.
Russia can benefit from CPEC more than even China. Russia's access to the hot waters has been limited or rather practically absent. Russia through China and Afghanistan can be linked to CPEC and access Gawader Deep Sea port.
Russia, China, Pakistan can make a huge economic region
 
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SCS joint drills, in my view, will be the symbolic pinnacle of China-Russia cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. That's so important and a strong message to the US-led trouble makers.

The enlargement of the SCO is significant in terms of security regime in Central Asia and beyond.

The OBOR-EEU (Eurasian Union) integration and cooperation agreement is also another significant step in terms of institutionalizing China-Russia relations.
 
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Any country needs friends.
Is Russia China's friend?
Yes !! yes !!
 
I'm still waiting for the day when a mutual defense treaty is signed between SCO members. That's when we are talking serious business in defending in each other interest and not allow the US's led order to establish hegemony and double standard in the global share vision.
 
I'm still waiting for the day when a mutual defense treaty is signed between SCO members. That's when we are talking serious business in defending in each other interest and not allow the US's led order to establish hegemony and double standard in the global share vision.

Lol. SCO is going to include India soon. Do you really think there will be a military alliance between India and China?

Also, Russia is more of a burden/liability for China than a resource. What does alliance with Russia bring China? Basically Russia, and some of its friends. (which aren't many)

On the other hand, Russia has got too many enemies that will also become China's enemies. The Nordic countries, Baltics, and broader Europe. Count in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Finland, to be instant enemies.

And then Europe, which has right now been largely neutral between the tussle between China and US will totally side with US.

You seem to totally underestimate the size and strength of Russia's foes. The countries that I listed by themselves comprise a greater GDP than Russia. And then Europe is a superpower.

I'm still waiting for the day when a mutual defense treaty is signed between SCO members. That's when we are talking serious business in defending in each other interest and not allow the US's led order to establish hegemony and double standard in the global share vision.

The fact is that China has not got many friends. And by friends I mean countries where at all levels there is a warmth and sense of common destiny with China. Pakistan seems to be the only friend that China has.
 
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China's Alibaba Discusses Possibility of Lending to Russian Small Businesses
09:26 09.08.2016

The financial division of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant Financial Services Group, is in talks with the Russian banks on the possibility of lending to Russian small businesses, the company's head of foreign business Jia Han said.

BEIJING (Sputnik) — At present, Ant Financial provides services for crediting small business in China, amounting to an average of $5,000.

"We are currently considering such a possibility for Russia as well. We are constantly in contact with the Russian partner-banks, and this issue is also being discussed," Jia told RIA Novosti. Ant Financial has already issued loans to 2 million small and medium-sized businesses in China. The company implements two programs, namely lending to small and medium-sized businesses, and financial support to farmers.
 
SCS joint drill, in my view, will be the symbolic pinnacle of China-Russia cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. That's so important and a strong message to the US-led trouble makers.

The enlargement of the SCO is significant in terms of security regime in Central Asia and beyond.

The OBOR-EEU (Eurasian Union) integration and cooperation agreement is also another significant step in terms of institutionalizing China-Russia relations.
Can you do for all of us a favor: keeping your propaganda to yourself!

I'm still waiting for the day when a mutual defense treaty is signed between SCO members. That's when we are talking serious business in defending in each other interest and not allow the US's led order to establish hegemony and double standard in the global share vision.
When are you leaving America and return to Chinese communist paradise?
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin tops China’s guest list for G20 summit

In the third story in a series on China’s relations with other G20 members ahead of next month’s summit in Hangzhou, the South China Morning Post looks at the foundations of what’s been called a ‘bromance’ between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 14 August, 2016, 11:00am
UPDATED : Monday, 15 August, 2016, 1:26am
Cary Huang

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When Russia and China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war with grand military parades in Moscow and Beijing last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping stood shoulder to shoulder, front and centre, on the reviewing stands.

Those images have prompted many to speculate that Putin will again feature prominently alongside Xi when China hosts Group of 20 leaders at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, next month.

A senior Chinese diplomat made no secret China’s intentions this month, telling media that Putin would be guest No 1 at the annual gathering of leaders from the world’s most influential nations and largest economies.

It will be a marked contrast to the reception Putin received at the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, which he left early after coming under concerted Western fire over the Ukraine crisis. Putin left those talks before the final communique was issued, saying he needed to get some sleep.

Others who will be attending this year’s most important gathering of global leaders include US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Xi and Putin have met more than a dozen times in recent years and appear to have developed a personal friendship as they have exchanged views on various global issues. Many observers have noted signs of a budding “bromance” between the two leaders, which has helped push the state-to-state relationship to new heights.

“Chinese protocol will treat Putin well in terms of a spot for the group photo of G20 leaders, etcetera,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior associate and chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific programme at the Carnegie Moscow Centre.

Some observers have likened the improvement in Sino-Russian ties as a result of the two leaders’ friendship to the turnaround in the Sino-US relationship following then US president Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972, when a de facto Sino-US alliance was formed to check an expansionist Soviet Union. They also say it has once again raised the prospect of the formation of a new alliance to challenge the domination of global affairs by the US-led West.

The fact that no leaders from the other major wartime allies – the US, Britain and France – attended the two parades last year suggests the world is increasingly becoming divided into two major camps, with China and Russia on one side, and the US-led West on the other.

While that remains a subject of debate, most observers agree that China and Russia have now found more reasons than before to forge ahead with cooperation in the pursuit of common interests. They expect Xi will use his position as host of the G20 summit to showcase Sino-Russian friendship as a shining example of good diplomacy, while also boosting the two countries’ status on the global stage.

“With China being the host this year, efforts will be made to show that Putin is an active player and that he is not isolated,” Gabuev said, contrasting that to last year’s G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, where he said Putin was also marginalised.

Diplomats will be focused on the interaction between Xi and Putin at the summit, looking for any clues on the development of one of the world’s most important bilateral relationships.

Wang Xianju, deputy director of the Renmin University-St Petersburg State University Research Centre, said developments since Putin’s visit to China in June would only increase the level of interest.

Chief among them is the escalation of tension in the South China Sea following the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s landmark ruling in The Hague on July 12 that denied China’s claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. Another recent development of note is cooling of the relationship between China and South Korea following Seoul’s decision to allow the US to deploy its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea in response to North Korea’s ambitious nuclear programme. Relations between China and Japan have also deteriorated due to increasing confrontation over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea.

Wang said those issues would be high on the agenda in talks between Xi and Putin at the G20 summit.

A series a geopolitical changes have contributed to the improvement in Sino-Russian ties, with escalating tension between China and US over the regional security implications of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” at centre stage. Another key factor has been rising tension between Russia and the US-led West after Washington and the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The Sino-Russian relationship has officially been upgraded three times since the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, an event which brought a de facto US-China alliance to an end.

In 1992, the two countries declared they were pursuing a “constructive partnership”. In 1996, they promoted their relationship to the status of a “strategic partnership”. And in 2001, they agreed to a “comprehensive partnership” by signing a Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation.

But the relationship only really began to flower after Xi became Communist Party general secretary in late 2012. In the first overseas trip of his presidency, in March 2013, just over a week after he became China’s head of state, Xi and Putin agreed in Moscow to forge “a special relationship” with increased security, economic, diplomatic and military cooperation.

However, most analysts view the relationship as being founded on realpolitik rather than a real strategic and political alliance similar to the one established shortly after the founding of communist China in 1949. Russia needed China’s market and capital, especially as Western sanctions over Ukraine bite, while Beijing saw Moscow as a source of diplomatic support and vital energy resources.

Benjamin Herscovitch, a senior analyst at Wikistrat, a geostrategic analysis and business consultancy headquartered in the US, said the burgeoning Sino-Russian relationship was “a product of a marriage of convenience rather than genuine romance”.

“Beijing and Moscow are increasingly diplomatically and economically close because of the imperatives of realpolitik,” he said.

For a strategically isolated Moscow, China was a welcome economic partner that would not punish Russia for its aggression in Ukraine, Herscovitch said. While the US-led West imposed sanctions and castigated Russia diplomatically, Beijing would happily do business with Moscow and voice qualified support for it.

Economic cooperation between China and Russia has boomed this century, with the volume of bilateral trade rising more than sixfold from US$15.8 billion in 2003 to US$95.3 billion in 2014, according to Chinese customs figures. China is Russia’s second largest trading partner, after the European Union, and Russia has launched major oil and gas projects with China, becoming one of its leading oil suppliers.

Some observers say the strategic partnership between China and Russia has recently gone way beyond a mere alliance of economic and political convenience.

Chinese and Russian officials say the key is Eurasian integration, starting with Xi’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative to improve regional transport infrastructure, and linking up with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which came into being last year and includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Beijing and Moscow also plan to expand the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, making it a security alliance similar to Nato.

The strategic partnership has also covered cooperation in the development of the BRICS grouping, which also includes the developing giants of India, Brazil and South Africa, support for China-led institutions such as the New Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a challenge to US-led Breton Woods institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and coordination in the G20, UN and other major international institutions.

Some Western analysts have viewed the recent, rapid enhancement of such collaboration as the beginning of a partnership set on destabilising the US-led world order and diminishing Washington’s capacity to influence strategic outcomes. However, only a few analysts believe that a China-Russia axis is being formed.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a demonstration of some special axis between Russia and China,” Gabuev said. “The two countries are not likely to become allies.”

He said Russia was likely to increase its sale of sophisticated weaponry to China, such as last year’s deal on the S-400 air defence system, while China would become a supplier of some critical parts for Russian military equipment, such as providing microelectronics for use in its space programme. “This part of their relationship will mature and continue,” Gabuev said.

While Putin has, by and large, been viewed unfavourably in the West, surveys have found that Russia’s strongman leader has many fans in China. However, not many Chinese believe he is a true friend of China. Having witnessed numerous shifts of diplomatic friends and enemies over the years, they see such intimacy as a product of diplomatic pragmatism.

Some are worried the Sino-Russian relationship might stall if Putin resigns, as expected, in 2018, due to the crucial role the personal ties between Xi and Putin have played in advancing bilateral relations.

Analysts said the key element in the friendship between China and Russia friendship was a shared desire to rein in America’s role as the world’s sole superpower by building a multipolar world – with both countries seeking global leadership roles.

Gabuev said the essentially non-democratic political systems of the two countries meant their interests were aligned, but the personal relationship between Xi and Putin was also important “because the two leaders are the major pushers in advancing bilateral ties”.

Additional reporting by Catherine Wong

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Lol. SCO is going to include India soon. Do you really think there will be a military alliance between India and China?

Also, Russia is more of a burden/liability for China than a resource. What does alliance with Russia bring China? Basically Russia, and some of its friends. (which aren't many)

On the other hand, Russia has got too many enemies that will also become China's enemies. The Nordic countries, Baltics, and broader Europe. Count in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Finland, to be instant enemies.

And then Europe, which has right now been largely neutral between the tussle between China and US will totally side with US.

You seem to totally underestimate the size and strength of Russia's foes. The countries that I listed by themselves comprise a greater GDP than Russia. And then Europe is a superpower.

Whatever to say, China has more friends than India has.


The fact is that China has not got many friends. And by friends I mean countries where at all levels there is a warmth and sense of common destiny with China. Pakistan seems to be the only friend that China has.

what you mean the sense of common destiny?
 

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