For, time and time again, China has set sight on a market, planned, prepared, and then taken it over. And then came its alliance with Russia: a bit-part player in the global economy, worth only two percent of China’s exports, versus the 63.7 percent traded with its top 15 export partners, close to all of which are vigorously opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia shares a 4,209km border with China, which has seen repeated tensions, armed conflict, and an agreement signed just 15 years ago, in 2008, by China, ceding its territorial claims to eastern Siberia. Yet China has no track record of relinquishing claims to regions. and in March, this year, it issued an order that eight cities in eastern Siberia should no longer be marked on Chinese documents with their Russian names, such as Vladivostok, but henceforth with their Chinese names. The fact is that if Russia fails in its war with Ukraine, China will face a severely weakened nation in reasserting its claim to those cities and that region. How will China balance its ties with Russia ?

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