Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing on Sunday, a day after Moscow defused the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s rule on his country.
Qin and Rudenko exchanged views on international and regional issues of common interest, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement, without offering more details.
In a TV broadcast to the nation on Saturday, Putin accused Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin of “treason” in a drama that saw the mercenary leader take convoys of his fighters to within hours of the capital Moscow. As part of a deal to end the uprising, the Russian president guaranteed that Prigozhin would be allowed to leave for Belarus and authorities would drop criminal mutiny charges against him and his fighters, according to the Kremlin.
The subject was covered by Chinese state media, with People’s Daily and CCTV both running stories as the news developed. Global Times published an article by former editor-in-chief Hu Xijin analyzing what scenarios the uprising could lead to, including regime change. President Xi Jinping has a tight relationship with Putin and visited him in Moscow in March.
The subject was also a hot topic on social media, with users sharing screenshots of Twitter discussions on the evolving drama. Some jokingly compared Prigozhin’s moves to the An Lushan Rebellion which began in 755 AD, when a disgruntled general and favorite of the emperor used his troops to capture the eastern capital and proclaim himself emperor. While the rebellion ultimately failed, it led to a weakening of the Tang Dynasty.
In a potential dig at Russia, a Weibo account operated by a part of the People’s Liberation Army published a post by China National Radio about how Mao Zedong revamped the PLA in 1927 — an event that ensured the party retained absolute leadership over the army.
--With assistance from Jing Li.
(Updates with Chinese media accounts from fifth paragraph.)
