China intends to become a legislator of the world order

By Vestnik Kavkaza

These days Western media report on a stiffening of China’s foreign policy, sometimes in such words: “The Chinese dragon began to show its teeth. It sends a message that it is able to spit fire, which will set the whole world alight if nobody stops it. It means the time of a cool-headed and careful policy of China has come to an end.” Some experts predict that China may probably reject the soft policy of trade and economic cooperation and integration mechanisms and focus on its military force.

However, Vasily Likhachev, Deputy Coordinator of the Group for Relations with the Parliament of the People's Republic of China, believes that “China has declared its right, using 'soft power', to be a political legislator of the contemporary world order. But China does not consider this to be the position of the egocentric center. Today, China has noted the necessity of developing partner relations.”

Likhachev thinks that “we paid a lot of attention to the development of the strategic partnership between Moscow and Brussels. There were very important documents, road maps were adopted. Brussels took the decision to recognize Russia's market economy status. But today this process is frozen. And suddenly a formula of strategic partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation ho appeared between Moscow and Beijing. This formula goes beyond bilateral relations.”

At the same time, the expert admits that today the United States is Beijing's main partner: “This can be seen according to the volumes of trade. 532 billion is the result of 2014. And 88.4 billion is the volume of trade with Russia. Today Russia is the 9th-largest partner of China. But for us, China is the main partner. Nevertheless, I am not surprised at the wisdom of the political leadership of China. They believe that the development of a strong state involves active, multiformat, and variable cooperation in the fields of politics and the economy with the Russian Federation. The Chinese have made more than 100 agreements with the regions of Russia, including the Volga regions. Today, in the context of this collaboration, the Chinese language is heard louder and louder on the streets of Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk, Almetyevsk, where the petroleum and refining units of Tatarstan are located. It has already been decided to build a block in the center of the city of Kazan. Today we are trying to solve many issues related to the training, the provision of benefits and rates for Chinese and for Russian students from Tatarstan in China.”

“In one word, after the 8th of May we have a completely new stage of really various strategic cooperation. In this direction the Russian parliamentary diplomacy has undertaken a serious responsibility,” the MP is sure.