# Xi and Putin issue a joint statement on international relations entering a new era

Date: 2022

## The fact

On 4 February 2022, on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics, [Xi Jinping](/people/env-person-xi-jinping) and [Vladimir Putin](/people/vladimir-putin) issued a Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era, declaring that friendship between the two states has no limits.

## Context

Putin visited Beijing. The MFA and Kremlin published the text. Twenty days later Russia invaded Ukraine. The statement is not an order to invade. It is a completed diplomatic alignment. Xi did not write the Kremlin invasion address.

The 24 February 2022 invasion address is a neighbouring Putin instrument. Power of Siberia first gas is a neighbouring earlier energy file.

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.

## Evidence and sources

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access) and [sanctions-pressure](/drivers/sanctions-pressure): a completed no-limits alignment twenty days before an interstate invasion is a dated diplomatic cover, not authorship of every later missile.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 4 February 2022 Xi–Putin joint statement declaring that friendship has no limits, published by the MFA.

Not established: that the statement was an operational order to invade Ukraine, or a unique later casualty coefficient.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Putin co-signed. The PLA did not invade Ukraine.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Xi and Putin issue a joint statement on international relations entering a new era, not a later speech about Xi and Putin issue a joint statement on international relations entering a new era.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Xi and Putin issue a joint statement on international relations entering a new era on 2022-02-04 is not a licence to treat every later Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Xi and Putin issue a joint statement on international relations entering a new era into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He issued the joint statement as China’s principal. Putin co-signed. The PLA did not invade Ukraine. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.

## People

- Xi Jinping: https://factrail.ai/people/xi-jinping

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access
- Sanctions Pressure: https://factrail.ai/drivers/sanctions-pressure

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-china-tell-nato-stay-out-their-affairs-ahead-putin-xi-talks-2022-02-04/
- https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjdt_665385/2649_665393/202202/t20220204_10638953.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-russia-joint-statement-2022