Xi and Putin Have an Unusual New Year’s Exchange That Hints at Divisions Within the CCP

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping exchange documents during a signing ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 5, 2019. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary

According to Chinese state media reports, on the evening of Dec. 28, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone and exchanged good wishes for the New Year. Compared with the content of past New Year greetings between the Chinese and Russian leaders from 2016 to 2019, this year’s greetings are quite unusual. The unusual lies in the following.