The US—Russia relations since Trump took office and China’s policy choices

Abstract

Since Donald Trump took office in early 2017, US—Russian relations have not only failed to “unfreeze,” but have deteriorated even further with continued US sanctions against Russia and increasingly bitter “diplomatic wars,” “media wars,” and intensified geopolitical rivalry in the Middle East. The author of this paper proposes that continuous deterioration of US—Russian relations is not only the result of the disparity of power, mutual misalignment, and the sharp decline of mutual trust between the two countries, but also the result of a strong influence of their respective domestic political factors, reflecting that the US—Russian conflict is accelerating the transition from an exogenous to endogenous one. The paper also argues that for a long time to come, “limited rivalry” will become the “new normal” of US—Russian relations. Against the background of profound adjustment and complex change ability of the international situation, China needs to take a more active and proactive lead in the positive interaction between China, the United States and Russia, avoid further escalation of the competition between the major powers, and jointly deal with the increasingly serious global and regional challenges through the trilateral cooperation between Russia, China and the United States.