China plays down impact of Russia’s aborted rebellion on bilateral ties

News Snapshot:

The foreign ministry also released an account of a second meeting by Mr Rudenko with Ma Zhaoxu, executive vice-minister of foreign affairs, in which it said the pair reaffirmed that Russia-China relations were “in the best period in history”. The account did not mention any discussion of the insurrection. China’s state media has downplayed the drama — on Sunday giving precedence to an exchange of letters between President Xi Jinping and a Belgian zookeeper discussing pandas. However, the muted official coverage of the rebellion belies the importance for Xi and the Chinese Communist Party leadership of the stand-off in Russia,...