4 ways China is quietly making life harder for Russia

The two states proclaimed last month that their friendship had “no limits.” That was before Russia While China is Russia’s No. 1 trading partner, Beijing has other priorities. Trade between the two countries made up just 2% of China’s total trade volume. The European Union and the United States have much larger shares, according to Chinese customs statistics from last year.Here are some measures Beijing has taken in the last few weeks to distance itself from the isolated and crumbling Russian economy.Letting the ruble drop China’s currency, the yuan, doesn’t trade completely freely, moving instead within bands set by officials at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Last week, they doubled the size of the ruble trading range, allowing the Russian currency to fall faster.The ruble has already lost more than 20% of its value against both the dollar and euro since the start of the war in Ukraine. By allowing the Russian currency to fall against the yuan, Beijing isn’t doing Moscow any favors.Russians will have to pay more in rubles for Chinese imports such as smartphones and cars. Chinese phone brands like Xiaomi and Huawei are hugely popular in Russia, and were vying with Apple (Earlier this month, a top Russian official said that China has refused to send aircraft parts to Russia as Moscow looks for alternative supplies. Valery Kudinov, head of aircraft airworthiness at Russia’s air transport agency, was quoted by Russian state news agency Tass as saying that Russia would look for opportunities to source parts from countries including Turkey and India after a failed attempt to obtain them from China.”As far as I know … China refused,” Kudinov was quoted as saying.In response to CNN’s request for comment, China’s foreign ministry reiterated Beijing’s opposition to sanctions adding that China and Russia will maintain “normal economic and trade cooperation.”China and Russia set up a civil aviation joint venture in 2017 to build a new long-haul, widebody passenger plane, seeking to rival the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus. Production of the CR929 has begun, but disagreements over suppliers have caused delays. The plane was initially expected to be offered to customers in 2024. But Russia postponed the timeline to 2028 to 2029.Freezing infrastructure investmentThe World Bank has halted all its programs in Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine. It hadn’t approved any new loans or investments to Russia since 2014, and none to Belarus since 2020. More surprisingly, perhaps, is the decision by the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to do the same. In a statement earlier this month, it said it was suspending all its activities related to Russia and Belarus “as the war in Ukraine unfolds.” The move was “in the best interests” of the bank, it added.Frustrated by a relative lack of influence at the World Bank (based in Washington, D.C.) and the Asian Development Bank (where Japan is a major force), China launched the AIIB in 2016. In addition to hosting the headquarters, China provides the president of the bank and has 26.5% of the votes. India and Russia have 7.6% and 6% respectively. The AIIB’s decision to suspend activities in Russia means $1.1 billion of approved or proposed lending aimed at improving the country’s road and rail networks is now on hold. — CNN’s Beijing bureau and Hannah Ritchie in Sydney contributed to this article.