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How China is becoming the gravitational centre of global diplomacy

When Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Beijing this week, just days after US President Donald Trump departed, following his summit with President Xi Jinping,…

By Samantha Johnson / May 18, 2026
When Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Beijing this week, just days after US President Donald Trump departed, following his summit with President Xi Jinping, the choreography will not be merely diplomatic. It will be show of “civilisational theatre”.

For years, analysts framed China as a power caught awkwardly between a revanchist Russia and an increasingly hostile United States. That interpretation now looks obsolete. Beijing is no longer balancing between rival poles; it is positioning itself as the axis around which those poles must rotate.

Putin’s visit, immediately following Trump’s, is no coincidence. Moscow urgently needs clarity on what transpired behind the doors of Zhongnanhai and the Great Hall of the People. Any recalibration in China-US relations – on tariffs, semiconductors, sanctions, rare earths, Taiwan or Ukraine – alters Russia’s strategic environment.

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The Kremlin understands that, in a world of tightening economic blocs and technological controls, China is not merely a partner. It is Russia’s economic lifeline, diplomatic shield and strategic rear base.

But the more profound story lies elsewhere. In hosting the leaders of Washington and Moscow within a week, and doing so specifically in Beijing, Xi is staging a carefully constructed demonstration of China’s role as an indispensable broker of the emerging order.

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The symbolism matters; diplomacy is performed through optics as much as through communiques. Trump’s visit was drenched in imperial-scale ceremony: military honours, schoolchildren waving flags, banquets in the Great Hall of the People and private tours of Zhongnanhai. Beijing was not simply welcoming an American president; it was receiving him as an equal – perhaps a petitioner.

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