International | Peacemaker or provocateur?

What does Xi Jinping want from Vladimir Putin?

Big questions loomed behind the Chinese leader’s trip to Moscow

Image: The Economist/Getty Images/AP
|Moscow

Ever since the second world war global politics has been moulded by the “strategic triangle” between America, China and Russia. Co-ordination between Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin in the early 1950s fuelled American determination to halt the spread of communism. That led to America fighting wars in Korea and Vietnam, its commitment to defend Taiwan, and many proxy conflicts elsewhere.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Seizing the opportunity”

From the March 25th 2023 edition

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