Several Sukhoi Su-27 jets, recently purchased from Russia, were among the scores of Chinese warplanes which screamed over the Taiwan Straits Wednesday.
The sight was clearly intended to intimidate the "rebel" island. But it also served as a graphic illustration of the fast-improving political and trade ties between China and Russia, once the antagonistic titans of the Communist world.In contrast to most Western countries, Russia has adopted a markedly sympathetic stance over Beijing's saber-rattling towards Taiwan.
"Our position remains constant - that Taiwan is an integral part of China and that the current situation is an internal matter for the Chinese people," a Russian Foreign Ministry official said this week.
Despite the heightened tension, President Boris Yeltsin still intends to visit China next month.
Some Russian foreign policy officials even appear quietly delighted at the prospect of a permanent rift emerging between China and the West over Taiwan. Disillusioned with the results of its flirtation with the West since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been reverting to a more nationalist, anti-American mood, symbolized by the appointment in January of hard-liner Yevgeny Primakov as foreign minister.
In recent months, Russian officials have floated the idea of a closer Russian-Chinese alliance aimed at moderating U.S. influence in the world and countering the eastward expansion of NATO.
Such sentiments were summarised Wednesday by Pavel Felgengauer, a military commentator, in the newspaper Segodnya: "Even if the ambitious plan to create a new continental strategic partnership in Asia is for various reasons not completely fulfilled, Russia will in any event be able to earn several billion dollars from the sale of arms and nuclear technology and at the same time send a clear signal to the West - that Moscow is not as isolated and weak as it seems."
This revision of Russian attitudes towards China may continue even if Yeltsin loses office in June's presidential election. There are few signs that Russia's Communist Party wants to revert to the frosty relations - and sporadic border conflicts - which characterized relations since the times of Mao and Stalin.
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader who tops most opinion polls, has spoken of emulating the "Chinese model" and has frequently praised Beijing for introducing economic reform while maintaining communist political orthodoxy.
But another strand of Russian thinking remains hostile towards China. Nationalist propagandists still fear the "yellow hordes" will pour across the border to grab Siberia's vast natural resources.
Despite Moscow's advances, China has remained cool about developing closer political relations - although it appears keen to promote trade. China emerged as Russia's seventh biggest trading partner last year, buying $1.6 billion of steel, fertilizers and arms.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)