Changes NOT SEENfor 100 YEARS

The Washington–Beijing–Moscow triangular diplomacy was developed in the 1950s, and in the past 70 years, it has been driven by the US. In the 21st century, the US seemingly gave up triangular diplomacy and let China and Russia deepen ties.

Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, paid a three-day state visit to Russia. During the visit, Xi told Putin, the President of Russia, that “right now there are changes, the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes together.”

These changes we haven’t seen for 100 years, but we have seen them in the past, especially in Chinese history: The Three Kingdoms.

The historical event “Three Kingdoms” in China is a perennial hit, and it has been the subject of historical accounts, novels, films and TV series, board games and computer games. But what is it all about?

Between 220 and 280 AD in China, the kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu fought to unite the Chinese Empire under their own banner. The historical event is a repository of Chinese geopolitical strategy.

At the beginning of the history of the three kingdoms, the Wei kingdom, led by Cao Cao, was the most powerful, Liu Bei, a descendant of Liu Bang who had ruled 400 years earlier, claimed the throne for himself with the Shu kingdom, and Sun Quan, living in the shadow of his famous father, led the Wu kingdom to unify the empire.

There are many similarities between the Washington-Beijing-Moscow international triangle of today and the historical event, with the following roles: the US has been the hegemonic ruler of the unipolar

Levente Horváth, Ph.D., Director of the Eurasia Center, Editor-in-Chief of the Eurasia Magazine

power (the Wei kingdom), China has historically accounted for 30 per cent of the world economy until the 19th century, and is aiming to achieve a Chinese Renaissance, while Russia, living in the shadow of its ‘father’, the Soviet Union, is striving for great power.

There are various alliances throughout the history of the three kingdoms, but ultimately, the Shu (China) and the Wu (Russia) ally against the strongest.

The question is, how will the story end? In the past, the Wei Kingdom won, but not under the rule of the Cao families, but under the leadership of the king’s strategist. Will it happen again, or will it have a different ending?

As I mentioned, in China, the story of “The Three Kingdoms” is a bestseller story, every Chinese watched movies about the Three Kingdoms, and the younger generation even spent a lot of time playing some kind of table game of The Three Kingdoms. Also, in the Chinese language, there are plenty of Chinese idioms from the story of The Three Kingdoms, so every Chinese is a master of triangular diplomacy.

We can not predict the end of the story, but we can tell some story about China via the magazine…

The Chinese and the Russian president signed major agreements