Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club forum in Sochi, Russia on October 5, 2023. Photo: AFP

Chinese observers commented on Friday that the US-led West's defamation of China-Russia cooperation is a deliberate tactic in their public opinion warfare, and China and Russia are the genuine defenders of the world order, which is rooted in international law. They made the comments following Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent remarks in which he criticized the West's notion of a "rules-based order" as a reflection of their outdated colonial  mind-set and bloc-based strategies.

Putin made the remarks while addressing the plenary session of the 20th anniversary meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Russian city of Sochi on local time Thursday. The Russian President also described the West's global influence as an "immense military and financial pyramid scheme," which constantly needs more "fuel" to support itself, with natural, technological and human resources that belong to others, according to the full text of Putin's speech seen on Kremlin's official website. 

To attain these goals, they [the West] try to replace international law with a "rules-based order," said the Russian president. "And actually, if I may, our Western 'colleagues,' especially those from the US, don't just arbitrarily set these rules, but also teach others how to follow them, and how others should behave overall."

All of this is done and expressed in a blatantly ill-mannered and pushy way, which is another manifestation of colonial mentality, Putin said. "I want to tell them sometimes: Wake up, this era has long gone and will never return."

Putin's Valdai speech challenged the concept of the so-called rules-based order that the West and its media have long emphasized. Putin made it clear at this conference that these so-called rules of the West are a result of their colonialism and colonial history. In other words, these so-called rules are imposed by the West on non-Western countries, so they are inherently unfair, said Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University.

Cui told the Global Times on Friday that Putin's challenge to the foundation of the international order stems from his observation that the international order has been undergoing accelerated changes, particularly after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and that the Western-led international order is crumbling.

At the Thursday event, Putin commended China as being one of the powerhouses of the global economy and China provides for high growth rates, while stressing that "at this moment, cooperation between Russia and the People's Republic of China is a very important factor stabilizing international life," Russia's TASS reported. 

Russia will expand cooperation with China in the sphere of security, the Russian president pointed out. The countries will not create any blocs, but they are "forced to react to what is happening around them," Putin noted.

Under the theme of "Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone," the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club took place on October 2 to 5, and was attended by about 140 specialists, legislators, and diplomats from over 40 countries and regions.

The past two decades since the establishment of the Valdai forum witnessed the peak of Western hegemony and the multipolar international system built after World War II has come to the verge of collapse, and against such a backdrop, cooperation between China and Russia becomes inevitable, Chinese observers said. 

Only through cooperation between China and Russia can the continuation of the post-war international order be maintained and the order based on international law be upheld, Cui said.

It is actually the West that is disrupting the global order, the expert said, citing the wars waged by the West in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo as examples. 

As for bilateral cooperation between China and Russia, Putin said that the two sides will implement infrastructure development plans for the construction of a Greater Eurasia, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the development of the "promising Belt and Road Initiative," the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday. 

Chinese observers said they do not take the US-led West's smearing against China-Russia cooperation as a "misunderstanding," as the West knows clearly the nature of such cooperation. "Defaming China-Russia cooperation is a deliberate move by the US-led West as part of its public opinion warfare," they said.