With China and
Russia expressing support for each other for their Taiwanese and Ukrainian
causes respectively at the inaugural ceremony of Beijing 2022, an effective alliance
has been forged, and Taiwan is uncomfortable.

Chinese President
Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked NATO expansion and other
dynamics of global polity during a summit held on the side lines of the Winter
Games.

Putin’s attendance
of the inaugural ceremony at a time when US and other western nations have
announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games starkly shows the schism within the
global world order and is reminiscent of Cold War curtains.

Taiwan, responding
strongly to the joint statement put out by China and Russia, has condemned the
timing of the “no-limits” partnership.

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“It not only
increases the Taiwanese people’s disgust at and loathing for the Chinese
government’s arrogance and bullying, it also clearly shows all the world’s
countries the sinister face of the Chinese Communist regime’s aggression,
expansionism and damaging of peace,” the Taiwan Foreign Ministry said in a
statement.

The ministry added
that China’s claims over the island were fake. “This is an insult to the
peaceful spirit embodied by the Olympic Rings, and will be spurned by Taiwan’s
people and held in contempt by democratic countries.”

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The China-Russia
summit was clearly a message to the world about the formation of a separate
pole of power. At the meeting, Russia voiced its support for China’s stance
that the democratically-governed Taiwan is part of China.

China, on its
part, replied in kind and articulated its strong opposition to the expansion of
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Russia has amassed nearly 100,000
soldiers on the borders of Ukraine for days at a stretch.

The US and its western
allies believe this is the prologue to an invasion, although Russia has repeatedly
denied the claim and called upon the powers to stop NATO’s expansionist moves.