I see this "Chinese production + Russian... (I guess just oil) = superior economic system" argument before, but I suspect these people have never opened a history book on Sino-Soviet relations. Because of decades of undermining and backstabbing, the trust between these two societies is pretty close to zero despite "communism". The only thing they really have in common is that they are both autocratic governments, so not exactly beacons of stability and cooperation. So the USD doesn't doesn't have to be the best, just the least worst.
The USSR and China aren't really comparable. At its height, the USSR had an economy about 60% of the size of the US's. The idea of the USSR as a threat to the USA (or even core US allies) was basically american paranoia in the post-Stalin era. What's more, a lot of the institutional dysfunction of the USSR was the legacy of Stalinism - it's hard to have a healthy society when everybody is used to being terrified of the man in charge.
China is already much bigger in terms of relative economy than the USSR ever was. Frankly, I doubt that they are an 'opponent' to the US in the sense that China hawks would have it, but they are way more credible as a 'superpower' than the USSR ever was. The USSR just had a lot of soft power with people in the global south because ex-colonies are typically not that keen on the world order established by their colonizers.
Unlike Russia, China actually makes stuff domestically. Like, a majority of the world's stuff, even. So their supply chain is rock solid. Also, China's corruption is a lot more.. functional.. than Russia. It oils the machine, blends with networking, rewards being a little greedy but punishes excess. And leadership is much more calculating and plans long-term. They've built on multi-decade plans successfully, frankly surpassing the West in that regard.
And finally, I think war is equally undesirable for us and China, considering we both have nukes, and direct war between nuclear powers is unacceptable. Nuclear wars have no winners.
Russia is way more advanced and united than China. Don't look at GDP figures, these are inflated and a bad measure of how advanced an economy is.
Look at this last coronavirus crisis: Russia was able to procure a more advanced vaccine than China. You'd think the second most powerful and planned economy in the world should have done better but it didn't.
Edit: Another measure to look at it. Look how many countries of the world were affected by this last war with Russia. (either for food, rockets, raw materials, etc...)
Russia benefits from disruption and chaos: it causes fuel prices to spike. China benefits from stability: it ensures people can and want to buy all the stuff they manufacture.
Russia asserts the right of strong nations to meddle in any nation that can't resist them. China asserts the right of every nation to territorial integrity and freedom from internal meddling by, e.g., democracy and human rights activists. (To be fair, Putin also hates these people, but clearly thinks Russia itself should be free to meddle in other nations' internal affairs.)
They are drawn together by their opposition to the West and in particular the US, and by their contiguity, but they aren't otherwise natural allies.
Soviet Union existed not long ago and was pretty much self sustaining even without China. With China being the world producer of everything and being friends with Russia they won’t have any problems getting anything they need.
The difference is Russia (the country) is poor. While China is not.
Russia's GDP is about 2017USD$ 1.7 T.
China's is 2017USD$ 12.2 T.
Companies traditionally aren't in the habit of doing favors for inconsequential entities. And for non-energy multinationals, Russia is generally more trouble than it's worth.
Well, one difference is the US is a lot more beholden to China (PRC) than to Russia. The loss of Russian energy supplies would be far less damaging to the US economy than the loss of Chinese manufacturing, for which there really is not substitute right now. China has more leverage vis a vis the US and the west than Russia does, in other words.
China's economy is big, growing, and rapidly diversifying across industries and into consumption. Russia's is treading water, concentrated, and shrinking away from consumption.
China also has more pro-business and -investment infrastructure than Russia, e.g. well-defended special economic zones, empowered pro-development governance, etc. Bejing has been more stable and predictable in respect of these priorities than Moscow.
Russian economy is weak, agreed, but militarily they are still the only significant threat to US global dominance. China's military is much weaker in comparison.
China is actually in a better spot than Russia to detach from the west. They make things, their people can definitely use those things, they rely on the west for cash but not really for things anymore. Russia will trade with them for their energy needs, food, mostly soy beans to feed pigs, is where their most of their challenge lies, but they have plenty of trading partners that are not very influenced by the west for that also.
The Soviet Union was badly afflicted by dutch disease and engaged in an eye wateringly expensive arms race. China isn't.
Though, because of their lack of mineral and agricultural wealth is that if they were subjected to a successful shipping blockade they would begin to starve relatively quickly.
This lack of fuel/food security is why they're so domineering in the South China sea, why they're spending ridiculous amounts on the new silk road, why they're so keen to get the US and the rest of the world hooked on Chinese exports and why they're leaders in green energy.
Russia: huge human capital. Check. Large unified market. Check. Tons of Military Might abused to ensure cheap access to ressources. Check.
Russia is only about 100-110 million people. One third of the US. So the "large unified market" is much smaller, as is the "human capital" pool, by which I don't mean people, but scientists, inventors, etc. And the military might that Russia has and uses to gain cheap access to resources is so smaller compared to the US it's not even funny. Plus, Russia is recovering from both the USSR state bureaucrat dictatorship AND the US/IMF BS doctrines imposed on the during the Yeltsin era.
Oh wait, I can do the same thing for China, too.
Well, unlike Russia, China DOES have all that. And China is doing rather well. It's on the up and up, and already poised to a larger economy that the US. So, if anything, this supports my argument.
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