Putins popularity reach top in china Marzia raman: As a global leader Russian president vladimir putins popularity rising high in China. Most chinese think putin as a strong, courageous leader and a friend of china. Anyone can understand MR. putin popularity, if he notice the amount selling of book written on putin. Besides in the recommended-reading section of Beijings Wangfujing bookstore, staff members have no doubt which foreign leader customers are most interested in: President Vladimir Putin, or Putin the Great as some Chinese call him. Books on Mr. Putin have been flying off shelves since the crisis in Ukraine began, far outselling those on other world leaders, sales staff say. One book, Putin Biography: He is Born for Russia, made the list of top 10 nonfiction best sellers at the Beijing News newspaper in September. Chinas fascination with Mr. Putin is more than literary, marking a shift in the post-Cold War order and in Chinese politics. After decades of mutual suspicion—and one short border conflict—Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer as they simultaneously challenge the U.S.-led security architecture that has prevailed since the Soviet collapse, diplomats and analysts say. The Pew Research Center says China is one of the few countries where popular support for Russia has risen since Moscows confrontation with the West over Ukraine—rising to 66% in July from 47% a year earlier. A poll by In Touch Today, an online news service run by Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd., put Mr. Putins approval rating at 92% after Russia annexed Crimea in March. Putins personality is impressive—as a man, as a leader. Chinese people find that attractive. He defends Russias interests, says Zhao Huasheng, an expert on China-Russia relations at Shanghais Fudan University. Russia and China can learn a lot from each other. It is partly realpolitik. Russia needs Chinas market and capital, especially as Western sanctions over Ukraine bite, the analysts say, while Beijing sees Moscow as a source of diplomatic support and vital energy resources. The countries concluded a long-awaited deal in May for Russia to supply $400 billion of gas to China over 30 years. They have forged agreements to build a railway bridge over their common border and an ice-free port in Russias far east. They have also unveiled plans to set up ground stations on each others land for their satellite global-positioning navigation systems. Also driving the realignment is rapport between Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi, whose leadership increasingly resembles his Russian counterparts charismatic nationalist authoritarianism. Putin and Xi Jinping are quite similar, says Yu Bin, an expert on China-Russia relations at Wittenberg University in Ohio. The leaders are from the same generation—they are both 61—and both want to re-establish their countries as world powers and challenge Western dominance following periods of perceived national humiliation. Xi Jinping, left, and Vladimir Putin increasingly share a similar brand of anti-Western nationalism. Above, the two leaders are seen together in Shanghai in May. ZUMAPRESS Mr. Xi came to power two years ago succeeding Hu Jintao, whom party insiders saw as an uncharismatic leader unable to inspire popular support or defend Chinas national interests. I think China, after 10 years of Hu Jintao, started to look for a strong leader, says Mr. Yu. In that context, the Chinese leadership does look to Putin. Theres a parallel experience. Mr. Xi has since made his relationship with Mr. Putin a priority. He chose Russia for his first foreign visit as Chinese president and was one of the few world leaders to attend the Sochi Winter Olympics. Mr. Xi has met Mr. Putin nine times since taking office, most recently at a Central Asian security forum in Tajikistan last month. I have the impression we always treat each other as friends, with full and open hearts, Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin in Moscow last year, according to an official Kremlin transcript. We are similar in character. He told Russian students later that China and Russia were both going through an important period of national rejuvenation and had the best great-power relationship in the world. Mr. Xi has established himself as a political strongman by outlining a China Dream of national rejuvenation, by overseeing a sustained anticorruption campaign and by using Chinas military muscle to enforce territorial claims around its coast. He has also tightened controls on the media and political dissent and has launched a campaign against Western ideological influence, such as through foreign-funded NGOs. Both men play on their countries wartime pasts. Mr. Xi has introduced three war-related national holidays, including a Martyrs Day, marked for the first time Tuesday. Mr. Putin just opened a new World War I memorial. They plan to hold joint celebrations next year for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Both men, scholars say, rely heavily on state-controlled media to tap into a popular admiration for strong leaders that is widespread in Russia and China, former empires that for most of their histories have been ruled by autocrats. Zheng Wenyang, the 30-year-old author of He is Born for Russia, says the biography, which came out in 2012, has sold far more copies than his earlier works on Barack Obama, Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. He says Mr. Putins popularity, while inflated by glowing reports in Chinese state media, feeds off a deeply held conviction in Chinese society: If a leader is weak and allows himself to be bullied, then people wont respect him. Russias pushback against Western-leaning governments in Georgia in 2008 and more recently Ukraine has been popular in China. Some say Beijing should draw lessons from those experiences as it jostles for control over waters in the East and South China seas with the U.S., Japan, Philippines and Vietnam. Putin is a bold and decisive leader of a great power, whos good at achieving victory in a dangerous situation, said Maj. Gen. Wang Haiyun, a former military attaché to Moscow, in an interview with the Chinese website of the Global Times newspaper. These features are worthy of our praise and learning. Russia has been a great world power for hundreds of years and a superpower in the bi-polar order: Its much more skilled than us at playing great power games. In the crisis over Ukraine—a supplier of corn and armaments to China—Beijing has stayed on the sidelines, calling repeatedly for a political solution and withholding support for Western sanctions against Russia.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:44:25 +0000
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