From Time:
Russia’s newly inaugurated President, Dmitri Medvedev, just completed his first state visit over the weekend. His choice of locale was not a surprise: Beijing. During the visit, there were predictable headlines in the press about Medvedev and President Hu Jintao denouncing U.S. plans for missile shields in both Europe and east Asia. The U.S. says they are to help its allies defend against possible attacks from Iran and North Korea. Moscow and Beijing don’t really believe that, but the fact is, that train has left the station. Both countries, on their own, will have to decide how to respond should missile defenses go up.
But the day-after wire service stories miss the larger point about the Hu-Medvedev meeting. What was most important is what didn’t happen. If the outside world had access to China’s intelligence service — the Guojia Anquan Bu or National Security Ministry — this is how an after-the-fact debriefing on the Medvedev visit might have gone from one of Beijing’s official Russia specialists (an expert who, for the sake of literary license, was educated in the U.S.) addressing the Central Committee and the State Security Council:
“Yet another bad date. The young Russian President — he’s only 42, and actually looks much younger in person — sounds a lot like the old one, which shouldn’t be surprising, since Mr. Medvedev is a place holder for Mr. Putin, now the Prime Minister.
