After growing GDP by 8.1% during 2021, China maintains the protectionist ‘Common Prosperity’ policy that will consolidate Xi Jinping as president for life, following Vladimir Putin footsteps, who has the world in suspense before an eventual Ukraine invasion where interests (regardless of side) include cultural hegemony, gas, or cryptocurrencies.

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A Russia that has lived under US sanctions since 2016, now allied to a ‘Zero Covid’ China, where hyper-surveillance and confinements are standard, while an unprecedented real estate bubble threatens the global economy.

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And a top image: Both Presidents at the Beijing Winter Olympics launch. Not their first time… they have met 38 times! With a common message: ‘the friendship between two countries has no limits,’ and a common goal: to make counterpart to the United States and its allies facing the new Eastern influence in the philosophical, economic, and warlike spheres.

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If it were only about economic benefits, Russia’s trade relations with China would represent 13% of its exports and 22% of its imports. That is to say, its main ally globally, with which it closed a 30-year gas export agreement for more than 117 billion euros during Beijing visit, not bad for a friends meeting.

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While for China, United States exports in 2021 increased by 27.5%, reaching USD 576 billion. Towards Russia, they reached USD 67.5 billion. So unlike the ‘Western’ (OECD) friends in the East, the alliance it’s about taking the lead to current USA power.

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It sounds like ‘Cold War’ era… at least in Ukraine, a Taiwan besieged by Chinese ships, NATO expansion pressure, AUKUS tensions, North Korea testing long-range missiles, the rumor of Moscow troops arriving in Caracas and Havana, in addition to the billions of hackers moving information.

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When concepts such as ‘Democracy’ and ‘Autocracy’ move businesses. Like the Russian government and army, which has the Chinese Huawei as its primary telecoms vendor since the United States began a plan to this company from the local commercial scene.

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Because once again, commercial and ideological hegemony has mixed. While Joe Biden seeks to balance the post-pandemic rules between Republican and Democratic States, Xi Jinping closes megacities until he achieves his ‘Zero Covid’ goal, and Vladimir Putin swims incessantly for the frozen Russian lakes wonders his next move. All this while the business world still waiting for inflation to come down.

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