Lukashenko travels to Beijing while Xi Jinping extends hand to another dictator
Belarus' leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is en route to China for a second meeting this year with President Xi Jinping. Last year, Minsk's debt to Beijing overtook Moscow's, hitting the 11 billion dollar mark, while the owed amount to Moscow, loaned by Lukashenko, was around 7 billion dollars.
The leaders' previous encounter was in March, as noted by the independent portal, Zerkalo.io.
"Lukashenko last visited China in March of this year. The press service at the time emphasized 'four hours of productive dialogue' with Xi Jinping as the primary outcome. Also reported was a 'packed agenda of meetings with government representatives and large corporations', along with the signing of deals worth 3.56 billion dollars. The ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict was also discussed" – reported by Zerkalo.io.
The platform additionally highlighted that the U.S. State Department, while reflecting on the past visit, regarded it as "another instance of China's extending cooperation with Russia and all others who partake in Russia's harsh war against Ukraine and back it."
Chairman Xi Jinping's ambitions extend beyond defending a single sanctioned dictator - Vladimir Putin, elevating his influence in Belarus.
Chinese investments
Chinese companies not only persist in investing in Belarus, a country currently under Western sanctions, but they also received a nod from the senior party leadership to initiate new and expand existing trade with Belarus last year.
A prime example of new technology initiatives is the "Great Stone" technology park near Minsk, where more than half of the corporations are funded by China. China has invested more than two billion dollars in the Great Stone area, although the Chinese embassy data in Minsk cites an even higher amount of 5.5 billion.
Belarus is now heavily dependent on Chinese loans. While in 2018, the volume of loans awarded by the People's Republic of China to Belarus was about 5 billion dollars (based on data from the Center for Eastern Studies), in 2022, Minsk's indebtedness to Beijing rose to 11 billion dollars. Crucially, the Chinese loans outweigh the amount borrowed from Moscow, which Lukashenko secured for around 7 billion dollars.
