Recently, there are some media personalities who put forth an explanation for why the Chinese leaders always prefer taking the side of Russia and being anti-U.S. Some tried to find the cause in economics - Large U.S. companies have their products produced in China paying low wages for domestic workers while leaving behind a large amount of pollution and poor workers. Some others tried to pin the blame on cultural differences. 

The real reason for some Chinese leaders to side with Vladimir Putin's Russia is something deeper. First, we must see that it is only 'some Chinese leaders' not every one of them. Not even all Politburo members of the Chinese Communist Party are for taking the Russian side. Specifically, it is only those leaders such as Xi Jin Ping and the extreme leftist (eg. Wang Hu Ning) who still cling to the ideology of Marxist, Leninist and Maoist Communism.  This ideology is old and despised even by Chinese standards, where it was used by Mao to reduce China to a truly poor, 3rd world state, with one disaster after another, the most notorious one being the Cultural Revolution. 

Yet, despite having proven to lead entire nation to poverty and isolation, the Communist ideology is a convenient and potent tool for ambitious politicians who want to cling to power. Xi Jin Ping is such a politician.  

To such politicians, the continued well being of its people, the economic development of the country are nothing compared with his own plan to stay in power. Individual liberty, human rights, democratic processes and the rule of law are just nice, fancy Western concepts that simply 'do not apply in China', because this is where Communists calling the shots. Selecting a country's leader through votes cast by the people is too messy, inconvenient and troublesome. Having a term limit of 10 years does not seem to work for him because he does not trust his successors and he is scared of ending up in prison like so many others before him. He envies tough guys like Putin of Russia, Lukashenko of Belarus, and Kim of North Korea and he wants to be just like them. 


Yes, there are some Chinese citizens who hold anti-Western or anti-U.S. views. To them, having been brain washed and blocked from independent news sources, not to follow the CCP means not being patriotic, which is a bad label. They have been told time and again to love the Party is to love the country. These people's views have been formed because of the lack of fact-based news reports over a long period of time. They will awaken once the facts are presented to them. 

So it is only a very small number of top CCP leaders who prefer siding with Russia. Many Chinese ask the question: Since Tsarist Russia forced China to give up 1.6 million square meters of land through the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1698) and Treaty of Aigun (1858), and since the CCP stands for patriotism, why the CCP has not asked Russia to return the land to China?