Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at the 2026 SCO Summit in Kyrgyzstan on August 31, 2026. (Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons)
Weatherhead East Asian Institute Distinguished Fellow Elizabeth A. Wishnick offers in-depth geopolitical analysis this week with a pair of late-summer features focused on China's foreign policy.
In an extensive Q & A for the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), "Sharing the Steppe: China’s Expanding Interest in Central Asia," Wishnick discusses China’s developing ties with Central Asian nations and how Russia, in particular Russia's war on Ukraine, factors into those relationships.
"Central Asian states need China, and China needs Central Asia."
— Elizabeth Wishnick, NBR interview
Later in the interview, Wishnick offers a preview of her forthcoming book, an examination (in part) of how China’s energy, water, and food security concerns play out in a wider regional context — a topic she has been exploring over time, and in detail, on her Substack newsletter.
In "Russia and China's Grand Strategy," an article published on the China Leadership Monitor website, Wishnick turns her to attention to the "high-quality partnership" between the two powers. While their ties are unmistakably deepening, Wishnick writes, China and Russia aren't entirely aligned in their attempts to frame an alternative world order.
"Both China and Russia see themselves as leaders, and neither wants to explicitly follow the other."
Elizabeth Wishnick is a Distinguished Fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). Her forthcoming book China’s Risk: Energy, Water, Food and Regional Security is under contract with Columbia University Press.
Read "Sharing the Steppe" (nbr.org)
Read "Russia and China's Grand Strategy" (China Leadership Monitor)
