However, what is raising everyone’s eyebrows is, again, China strategically playing around with cracks in the global order, in this case, Xi’s attempts to form relations with European nations. On his first post-pandemic visit, he met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and he lauded their newfound cooperation. However, it was not the friendliest of meetings. Even during that meeting, Xi Jinping had to clear the air regarding its Russian associations, saying it was only trying to create peace in Ukraine and negating its industrial “overcapacity.” France is an avid critic of China, with a history of open dissent to China and selling arms to Taiwan. It has entered an inter-theatre cooperation and dialogue mechanism in its naval and air forces.

Countries like India and Japan, which have close and long-lasting ties with France, are not on board with this newfound relationship. India and Japan, specifically India’s ties with China, are shaky, with border problems and tensions rising between the two countries. Thus, both of them are disturbed by this unforeseen allyship. It is uncertain comprehend France’s true intentions: maybe it can be a move to increase its gains, but it certainly feels double-sided since France’s past insistence on safeguarding human rights and its ties with other countries who are anti-China may cause some intricate problems to France in the coming future. More than that, many different European countries have taken a staunch anti-Russian stance; one of the main reasons would be the Ukraine War and Russia’s obvious threat to European security.

Another interesting turn of events would be Russia’s association with Serbia and Hungary. Instead of the awkward handshakes, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed Xi Jinping with people waving festoon flags. The Chinese media called the relationship “ironclad,” with all three countries releasing a joint statement about joining China in a community “with a shared future.” Both the Serbian and Hungarian presidents are interested in creating an alliance with China, with Serbia signing a free-trade agreement. In contrast, Hungary signed eighteen joint agreements with China covering IT, railway, and nuclear energy. Xi is ecstatic about this new relationship, saying, “deepen economic, trade, investment, and financial cooperation,” including the Budapest-Belgrade railway. 

China hopes that the association with Hungary and Serbia would erode the massive economic sanctions that other European countries have imposed on it while creating a strategic space for smooth “China-EU” relations. Both countries have become important hubs for China’s economic investment: they are the key production hub of Chinese Electric Vehicles (EV) and other automotive parts, with China opening a new factory in Hungary. Moreover, association with European countries gives an edge to China, producing an assumption that there are “cognizant” EU countries trying to form alliances with China irrespective of the domestic/regional countries’ defensive policy against it and highlighting interest-based cooperation rather than looking into the geopolitics of it.

Other EU countries, again, are not in favor of this alliance. Moreover, the Hungarian president’s stringent conservative politics, lining up with the China association, is not good optics for the EU. Furthermore, this meeting implies that not all EU countries do not have complete cohesion within themselves. Neighboring countries such as India are also not on board with China-Russia relations since, as mentioned before, India-China relations lie on unstable ground due to the border issues near Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. In the above cases, Russia has been a common denominator in how other countries wish to pursue a relationship with China. However, it is not an official alliance since both countries have agendas: Russia is close with India, Vietnam, and Indonesia and does not agree with China on Taiwan. At the same time, the former keeps stating neutrality on the Ukraine War.

No matter the degree of formality,  China-Russia bilateral traditions have been smooth sailing and probably not ready to comprise its relationship since China considers “self-sufficiency” as one of its primary goals and having each other on their teams has given both the countries the power to challenge the financial and diplomatic problems that the West sanctions them to create a non-US based order. It is not impossible, but since Russia is back and forth on its gains in the Ukraine War and needs to sort out its problems before actually joining hands with China to ensure a new multipolarity.