The ongoing visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Russia has yielded fruitful results. The two sides on Monday inked 38 inter-governmental, inter-departmental and corporate agreements on different aspects of bilateral cooperation involving energy, aviation and space, high-speed railways, tourism, and finance. The Western world has conflicted feelings as it witnesses the hug between the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon these days. Many Western media outlets hold that it's Western sanctions that have pushed Moscow to side with Beijing, making China the biggest beneficiary of the West-Russia confrontation.

It is indeed one of the reasons for the further advancement of Sino-Russian relations. But noticeably, this was the 19th China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting. If the West merely takes China-Russian cooperation as subordinate to the Western attitude toward the two, it is ridden in excessive Western centralism.

Moscow and Beijing were once locked in long-lasting confrontation. But since the 1990s, both have drawn lessons and been engaged in developing friendly ties. In contrast, the Americans, who are obsessed with their experience of crushing the Soviet Union through the Cold War, have never reflected upon their long-term confrontation with Moscow.

The West has been trying to sting Moscow now and then, which helps foster the recognition of the significance of equitable and friendly Sino-Russian cooperation. Beijing and Moscow have been accustomed to a long-term amicable relationship. In other words, even when the West lifts their sanctions against Russia, Sino-Russian relations will continue to prosper. 

Western countries fail to learn from how China and Russia overcame a myriad of conundrums to enter into overall cooperation. Instead, they keep calculating how China and Russia benefit from them. They are more willing to believe China and Russia should be entangled into cooperation, competition and even confrontation as are the relationships between China and the US, or between China and Japan.

Contrary to the "master-servant" relationship between the US and other Western countries, the relationship between China and Russia and other new emerging economies is equal, which is more appealing. US-Russia relations after the Cold War have never developed on an equal footing.

Washington has kept suppressing Moscow's strategic space. Only when the US and the whole Western world reevaluate, can there be a new driving force in major power diplomacy.

Western countries fail to grasp the essence of the China-Russia relationship. They are laboring under the misperception that the two countries are engaged in a temporary courtship and the 38 cooperative agreements signed on Monday are candidly a "gift" of the West. By sticking to such views, they will continue their confrontation with Russia and be stuck in complicated relations with China.