Summary
China has sent officials to Russia to study the effects of Western sanctions, aiming to prepare for potential sanctions if it invades Taiwan.
Beijing’s task force, created after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, analyzes sanctions’ impacts and strategies like reserve diversification and de-dollarization.
Concerns over $3.7 trillion in Chinese overseas assets are driving these efforts.
The growing ties between China and Russia include Chinese companies aiding Russia’s war efforts.
Spoiler: If sanctions do anything at all, they hurt the population trapped under state control but not the people who control the state.
Mainstream western political theories holds the power of nations arises from their economy. What threat would Putin be were Russia incapable of producing weapons and supplying soldiers?
Sanctions therefore seek to diminish the power of Russia, counting on its economy being sufficiently interconnected with and dependant on that of the West.
In this context, sanctions hurting the common people is ultimately the point, because they’re literally trying to make Russia poorer, and therefore the poorest will be hurt most. Sanctions targeting the ruling class (such as seizure of assets like yachts) are at best symbolic.
I disagree with the “at best symbolic”
IF they’re done rigorously, they CAN create some serious hurt for the oligarchs in question, it seems…
The problem is that they’re usually done haphazardly…
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