Yeah China doesn’t want to be hegemon per se, just an indispensable power that can protect its near interests and sovereignty. However , due to China sheer size and coming dominance in almost every field(10 years from now barely any field will not be dominated by them or have a significant share) any country that partners with China will automatically be a junior partner . That’s the reality of the world , you can’t expect to be equal to a country may times larger, wealthier, stronger, industrialized , developed than you . It makes no sense . Just like China couldn’t consider herself an equal to the Soviet Union no matter how some Chinese wanted to believe so. Everyone (even the Soviets ) saw them as a junior partner and RIGHTLY SO. No shame in acknowledging reality . We humans need to adapt with reality and like Lee kwan Yu used to say : “take the world for what it is and not what you want it to be”.
the interesting thing is that , Russia today is more tending towards recognizing this fact via a vis their position towards China. I say this because I followed a very renowned Russia scholar closed to Moscow corridors of power who was talking about this in a podcast and explaining how th war in Ukraine and Chinas entrance in Russian market has changed a lot of their people’s perception towards China , even some of their elsewhile nationalist politicians who were looking down on the “brown yellow peril Chinese “ have had a change of mind since the a Ukraine war. Many of them now recognize that Russia is not in a position to be an equal to China in almost any aspect. They realized that the role has reversed compared to the Soviet era. It was hard as first to accept but with time they have adapted and come to accept reality.
I was surprised to listen to all he said, but it was an interesting read. I guess that’s why we have seen Russia opening up to China on many issues they formerly refused to do in the past. Will be interesting to see if they will really accept their role in this partnership in the long term . I need to find that video.
Well, today, China has 10x the population of Russia.
The economy is also about 10x larger.
And going forward, Russia could get first refusal on all sorts of advanced technology and products from China, that the West won't have.
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If there is a fear in Russia of turning into a vassal like Canada, the big differences are:
1. Russia has a very large nuclear arsenal, so its borders are secure. It is also not in China's interest to see Russia destabilised, as what happens to the nuclear weapons?
2. The USA competes with Canada to produce raw materials, and is a net exporter of food, oil, gas, coal, timber, etc, so has very little dependency on Canada. In comparison, because China has a population which is 4x larger than the USA, China will always be a large importer of raw materials, so Russia will have leverage there.
3. Russia's core population and industrial centres are in European Russia. In terms of potential military or economic threats, Moscow is 900km from Poland, whereas Beijing is a distant 6000km
