China asked Russia to delay invasion of Ukraine until after Olympics, Western intel shows
Source: CNN
A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials, in early February, requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion into Ukraine, US officials said Wednesday.
US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Although the request was made around the time that President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics — where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping — it is not clear from the report whether Putin addressed the matter with Xi directly, the source said.
Western intelligence officials warily watching Putin’s buildup on the Ukrainian border at the time had anticipated that Putin might delay any military action until after the Olympics to avoid angering China.
After Putin and Xi’s meeting, Moscow and Beijing issued a joint statement declaring that their partnership had “no limits” and condemning NATO expansion — a key pillar of Putin’s justification for attacking Ukraine.
That statement has elevated Western concerns about a burgeoning alliance between China and Russia.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-02-22/index.html
What drove these two enemies into each other's arms?

China's population and economy with Russia's nuclear arsenal and natural resources are a formidable combination.


TheBlackAdder
(29,364 posts).
Trump's China tariffs are what pushed China to establish volume trade channels with Russia.
.
texasfiddler
(2,196 posts)Maybe if Putin really believed in global warming, he would've realized this isn't the early 20th century. Shit starts to melt now in February. Ha Ha!!
IronLionZion
(48,029 posts)it would be really bad for us if the supply chain issues became worse for important stuff. We're going to wish we made at least some essential stuff here in the US.
bluewater
(5,420 posts)

Evolve Dammit
(20,275 posts)for corporations seeking cheap labor and increased profits. China makes everything, even our drugs. You are correct. We are at a serious disadvantage should the sheet hit the fan.
IronLionZion
(48,029 posts)microchips are in everything these days.
Evolve Dammit
(20,275 posts)Evolve Dammit
(20,275 posts)AllyCat
(17,606 posts)Putin waited until after Sochi to attack Crimea.
SunSeeker
(55,050 posts)BumRushDaShow
(148,731 posts)Because China wants to do the same with Taiwan.
But the deeper reason - energy!
World
Russia’s $55bn pipeline gamble on China’s demand for gas
Putin pivots to Beijing with biggest energy project since fall of Soviet Union
April 3 2018 by Henry Foy in Neryungri
The bright afternoon January sun offers little respite from the minus 40C temperature for the pipeline construction workers crunching through the snow in Russia’s Far East region.
In the sprawling pine forests of the country’s eastern wilderness, the cold air burns cheeks and catches in throats, as the thick, grey exhaust fumes from the colossal earthmoving diggers hang like clumps of candyfloss.
The four-dozen engineers near the town of Neryungri are part of an 8,500 crew working all-year round to build Gazprom’s Power of Siberia, a 3,000km pipeline that runs from the gasfields of eastern Siberia to the Chinese border in the south-east.
The pipeline is Russia’s most ambitious, costly and geopolitically critical energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union, and represents a $55bn bet on uncharted territory by the world’s biggest gas company.
https://ig.ft.com/gazprom-pipeline-power-of-siberia/
JanMichael
(25,505 posts)Which is why the Russians are using roads only for their advance making them sitting ducks. The tanks sink in the mud.
I wonder if China did this on purpose?
FakeNoose
(36,846 posts)What if Pootie tells Xi to stop shipping orders to the US?
OnlinePoker
(5,914 posts)I was off by 3 days on the invasion, though.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2867869
Ford_Prefect
(8,286 posts)TeamProg
(6,630 posts)
erronis
(18,171 posts)"China's population and economy with Russia's nuclear arsenal and natural resources are a formidable combination. "
They are a formidable combination, but they are also formidable adversaries.
They are both autocratic and headed by dictators and have lots of areas of competition.
Gone are the days when both could say that they hewed to the true communist model of governance. Truth be that they were just autocracies from the get-go. Trotsky, Lenin, power-to-the-people - all catch-phrases to lure the gullible.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)That’s when China can expect to host another Olympic event.
58Sunliner
(5,419 posts)DENVERPOPS
(11,266 posts)for decades that we might see the joining of these two countries. It would be beneficial to both for precisely the reason stated in the last sentence. They hold a huge amount of natural resources between the two of them. As well as a mutual desire to crush the U.S.
They could exist symbiotically along side each other without one taking over the other.
I am happy to be old, and not be forced to watch a lifetime of the future regarding us, China, and Russia sort it all out.......
I do have to say:
These Fucking Republicans must not have children or Grand children, or just don't care about them, only themselves.
That alone pretty much brands them as psychopaths, sadists, and egomaniacal sub human pieces of excrement......
Period.........
cstanleytech
(27,472 posts)and it should be skipped as host for any future worldwide sporting events.
oldsoftie
(13,538 posts)And as long as they remain communist led, that fact will not change. We must put pressure on our companies to get our critical manufacturing OUT of China. We give them our money to use it against US & the rest of the free world.
malthaussen
(18,014 posts)bluestarone
(19,132 posts)russia has nothing to trade?