This is a good one and the timing suggests it is true at least in the short term. The Olympics only started in Feb ’22 though. Do we have any indication that China made Putin wait for several months?
International diplomacy involves a lot of anticipation instead of direct messaging, but even so, in this case I’d say it’s definitely more about Putin looking out for China than the other way around. The winter olympics were only China’s second olympics ever, and possibly China’s last olympics ever, and the ruling party clearly treated them as a Schelling Point. It would be a bad idea to fray ties with China at such a critical time.
I believe that China requested a delay in the spirit of “dude, not during olympics plz”
This is a good one and the timing suggests it is true at least in the short term. The Olympics only started in Feb ’22 though. Do we have any indication that China made Putin wait for several months?
International diplomacy involves a lot of anticipation instead of direct messaging, but even so, in this case I’d say it’s definitely more about Putin looking out for China than the other way around. The winter olympics were only China’s second olympics ever, and possibly China’s last olympics ever, and the ruling party clearly treated them as a Schelling Point. It would be a bad idea to fray ties with China at such a critical time.