Why’d China So Strongly Object To Its Citizens Being Detained By Russia On The Kazakh Border?

China’s strong objection to Russia’s detainment of its citizens on the Kazakh border should lead to honest influencers in the Alt-Media Community recalibrating their analyses if they sincerely aspire to accurately reflect the reality of their ties as it objectively exists, not as they wish it was. This incident should hopefully serve as an opportunity for correcting perceptions about them in order to stop misleading others. Russia and China remain close, but sensitive differences exist that can’t be denied.

Russia & China Aren’t “Allies”

There’s a perception among many in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) and the Mainstream Media (MSM) that Russia and China are “allies”, the narrative of which these two media camps push for polar opposite reasons. The first regards it as something positive while the second considers it to be negative. While it’s true that their strategic partnership can presently be described as an Entente due to them coordinating efforts to accelerate multipolarity, three recent incidents prove that they aren’t “allies”.

China’s Unprecedented Accusations Against Russia

China’s Global Times took the AMC and MSM by surprise when it reported on Friday that “Chinese embassy demands Russia to further probe border officers’ law enforcement actions after five Chinese citizens were denied entry” from Kazakhstan on 29 July. Russia described this as an isolated incident prompted by the travelers’ actual destination being inconsistent with what they declared when applying for their visa, but China claims they were mistreated in a “brutal” and “excessive” way.

The article ended by noting that “The embassy is now demanding a reply from Russia over its investigation linked to the excessive law enforcement practices of Russian border officers. In the statement, the embassy reminded Chinese nationals to contact consular officials for timely assistance should they encounter problems that compromise their dignity and legitimate rights in Russia, adding that the embassy would spare no efforts in offering help.”

The Western-Centric Ukrainian Peace Talks In Jeddah

This strongly worded statement bucked expectations from observers on both sides of the New Cold War who hitherto expected that such incidents would be dealt with behind closed doors by Russia and China. Whether coincidental or not, the timing of Global Times’ report about the Chinese Embassy in Russia’s strong objection to the alleged treatment of its five detained citizens came on the same day that the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that it’ll dispatch a representative to this weekend’s Jeddah Summit.

Li Hui has been tasked by President Xi with promoting their country’s peace proposal for ending the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine so it’s fitting that he’s the one who was selected to take part in this meeting. About that event, it’ll concern Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula” and be attended by many Western countries plus all the BRICS members apart from Russia. The Kremlin has criticized the event, but it importantly didn’t condemn those of its partners who’ll participate in it.

Principled Neutrality Isn’t Proof Of Being A “Trojan Horse”

Prior to this announcement, some of the AMC’s top influencers were angry that Brazil and India agreed to attend that event, with one of them condemning those countries as “Trojan Horses” in their tweet here that garnered over 125,000 views in response. “There’s Nothing Wrong With India Attending The Western-Centric Ukrainian Peace Talks In Jeddah” however, nor with China doing the same, since these two always abstained from anti-Russian UNGA votes and thus need to retain their neutral reputations.

It would contradict their principled neutrality towards this conflict for them to decline participation in any event that’s officially intended to discuss peace, no matter how lopsided the terms like Zelensky’s indisputably are, hence why they decided to send high-level representatives to Jeddah. Even so, China’s participation still took many in the AMC and MSM off guard since they wrongly thought that it was Russia’s “ally” and therefore wouldn’t take part in any meetings where the Kremlin would be criticized.

Sensitive Sino-Russo Differences Can No Longer Be Denied

In reality, differences over sensitive issues still veritably exist between Russia and China in spite of their newly formed Entente, but they should be candidly acknowledged by both media camps instead of denied or spun by them like is currently the case as was advised here in early May. No honest observer can deny this state of affairs any longer after the messages sent by China on Friday through its Foreign Ministry’s statement and Global Times’ report.

The second is much more serious than the first since China officially suspects Russia of mistreating five of its citizens in a “brutal” and “excessive” way that “demands” an investigation. While it’s unclear exactly what happened when they were detained, there’s no reason to doubt the initial investigation’s findings that “the destination of their visa application [was] not consistent with the actual destination, which [was] in violation of relevant Russian laws and regulations.”

China’s Alleged Penetration Of Russia’s Hypersonic Missile Program

Russia “does not have any discriminatory policies or actions against Chinese citizens” like Global Times reported about that country’s response to China’s official investigation demand, but it also doesn’t extend any privileges to those Chinese citizens suspected of violating the law either. This is especially so nowadays after three high-profile espionage cases over the past year regarding Russian scientists who were accused of selling hypersonic missile secrets to China.  

These scandals followed the arrest in June 2020 of the President of the St. Petersburg Arctic Social Sciences Academy, who TASS claimed was accused of “[giving] China information on research on hydro acoustics and submarine detection methods” according to their sources familiar with the investigation. Since then, publicly financed Russian media has tried not to emphasize suspected Chinese connections to the past year’s espionage cases, but alleged law enforcement sources still leaked this to other media.

An Overabundance Of Caution Is Better Than Ignoring Possible Infiltration

That’s why the most recent espionage-related arrest in May saw Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov “asked if he saw a certain trend in the fact that when scientists are arrested for treason, they are often accused of having ties to China.” He understandably downplayed such speculation by saying that “No, I would not draw conclusions about any trends in this case”, but the point in drawing attention to TASS’ report about this interaction is to show that some basis exists for suspecting China of espionage.

This sensitive national security context might explain why those five Chinese citizens were “repeatedly interrogated by Russian border officers for as long as four hours” like Global Times claimed. It could have therefore been the case that the Russian authorities didn’t want to take any chances after nationals from the same country that’s suspected of penetrating their ultra-secret hypersonic missile program violated the law by crossing the border in a different place than they declared when applying for their visa.

Every Country Has The Right To Advance Their National Interests

Accordingly, counterintelligence professionals might have been called in to question those detainees, thus accounting for their reportedly long “interrogation” as well as the “brutal” and “excessive” way in which it was conducted, though of course nothing can be known for sure till the investigation concludes. Whatever the truth may be, that incident, the allegedly Chinese-connected espionage cases that preceded it, and China’s decision to attend the Jeddah Summit discredit claims of it being Russia’s “ally”.

There’s nothing wrong with these two strategic partners not being “allies”, however, and it’s natural that they’d each prioritize their national interests no matter what one might think about the ways in which they unquestionably and speculatively go about doing so. The exact same can be said regarding those instances where Western states take different stances on sensitive issues like Turkiye does towards ties with Russia or one of them is accused of spying on the other like the US sometimes is by its partners.  

Realistic Analyses Should Replace Ideological Propaganda  

Just like the MSM pushes the “Democratic Peace Theory” suggesting that no serious differences exist between states that have Western models of democracy, so too does the AMC push what can be described as the “Multipolar Peace Theory” suggesting the same about these sorts of states too. The reality is that Western-style democracies do indeed have serious differences on sensitive issues and even spy on each other just like multipolar states do as shown by the three Sino-Russo examples in this piece.

Related scandals aren’t usually cause for alarm, let alone wildly speculating that those partnered states are on the brink of war with one another or at least about to break off their ties, but the very existence of these disputes pokes holes in the innuendo connected with both abovementioned theories. While compelling but nevertheless imperfect cases can be made in support of the claim that neither Western-style democracies nor multipolar states go to war with each other, their ties aren’t perfect either.

Concluding Thoughts

China’s strong objection to Russia’s detainment of its citizens on the Kazakh border is a case in point, which should lead to honest influencers in the AMC recalibrating their analyses if they sincerely aspire to accurately reflect the reality of their ties as it objectively exists, not as they wish it was. This incident should hopefully serve as an opportunity for correcting perceptions about them in order to stop misleading others. Russia and China remain close, but sensitive differences exist that can’t be denied.