Chinese assistance to Russia during war in Ukraine: successes and limitations

The purpose of this article is to analyse China’s assistance to Russia’s agricultural sector since Russia’s invasion in 2022. China’s assistance is analysed within a Realist framework in which China and Russia try to balance U.S. hegemony. China’s assistance to Russia is important because Chinese leaders chose to balance instead of bandwagon, and chose to assist Russia by increasing food imports despite their protectionist policies. Chinese assistance took on different forms, but perhaps the most important was China lowering trade barriers to become Russia’s most valuable food export market. Despite claims about limitless friendship, China’s assistance to Russian agriculture is limited by its food security policy, bureaucratic obstacles, macroeconomic conditions, foreign competition, and politics.