Putin Begins Visit in China Underscoring Ties Amid Ukraine War, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
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Putin Begins Visit in China Underscoring Ties Amid Ukraine War, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine as well as Russian backing for China's bid to expand its economic and diplomatic influence abroad.

The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel against its relations with Iran and Syria, two countries that are strongly backed by Russia and with which China has forged ties for economic reasons as well as to challenge Washington's influence in the Middle East.

Putin's plane was met by an honor guard as the Russian leader began his visit that is also a show of support for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature “Belt and Road” initiative to build infrastructure and expand China’s overseas influence.

In an interview to Chinese state media, Putin praised the massive but loosely linked BRI projects.

“Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People’s Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise, we just see desire for cooperation,” he told state broadcaster CCTV, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Monday.

Putin will be among the highest profile guests at a gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Xi’s announcement of the BRI project, which has laden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka with heavy debt from contracts with Chinese companies to build roads, airports and other public works they could not otherwise afford. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has praised the Chinese policy as bringing development to neglected areas.

Asked by reporters Friday about his visit, Putin said it would encompass talks on Belt and Road-related projects, which he said Moscow wants to link with efforts by an economic alliance of former Soviet Union nations mostly located in Central Asia to “achieve common development goals.”

He also downplayed the impact of China’s economic influence in a region that Russia has long considered its backyard and where it has worked to maintain political and military clout.

“We don’t have any contradictions here, on the contrary, there is a certain synergy,” Putin said.

Putin said he and Xi would also discuss growing economic ties between Moscow and Beijing in energy, high-tech and financial industries. China has also grown in importance as an export destination for Russia.

Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that from China’s view, “Russia is a safe neighbor that is friendly, that is a source of cheap raw materials, that’s a support for Chinese initiatives on the global stage and that’s also a source of military technologies, some of those that China doesn’t have.”

“For Russia, China is its lifeline, economic lifeline in its brutal repression against Ukraine,” Gabuev told The Associated Press.

“It’s the major market for Russian commodities, it’s a country that provides its currency and payment system to settle Russia’s trade with the outside world — with China itself, but also with many other countries, and is also the major source of sophisticated technological imports, including dual-use goods that go into the Russian military machine.”

Gabuev said that while Moscow and Beijing will be unlikely to forge a full-fledged military alliance, their defense cooperation will grow.

“Both countries are self-sufficient in terms of security and they benefit from partnering, but neither really requires a security guarantee from the other. And they preach strategic autonomy,” he said.

“There will be no military alliance, but there will be closer military cooperation, more interoperability, more cooperation on projecting force together, including in places like the Arctic and more joint effort to develop a missile defense that makes the US nuclear planning and planning of the US and its allies in Asia and in Europe more complicated,” he added.

The Chinese and Soviets were Cold War rivals for influence among left-leaning states, but China and Russia have since partnered in the economic, military and diplomatic spheres.

Just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Putin met with Xi in Beijing and the sides signed an agreement pledging a “no-limits” relationship. Beijing’s attempts to present itself as a neutral peace broker in Russia’s war on Ukraine have been widely dismissed by the international community.

Xi visited Moscow in March as part of a flurry of exchanges between the countries. China has condemned international sanctions imposed on Russia, but hasn’t directly addressed an arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court on charges of alleged involvement in the abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.



Musk Calls Trump’s Tax-Cut and Spending Bill ‘a Disgusting Abomination’ 

Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. (AFP)
Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. (AFP)
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Musk Calls Trump’s Tax-Cut and Spending Bill ‘a Disgusting Abomination’ 

Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. (AFP)
Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. (AFP)

Billionaire Elon Musk plunged on Tuesday into the congressional debate over President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill, calling it a "disgusting abomination" that will increase the federal deficit.

Several fiscally conservative Republicans in the US Senate supported the views Musk expressed in social media posts, which could complicate the bill's path to passage in that chamber.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination."

He added: "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."

Musk's comments hit a nerve. Republican deficit hawks have expressed concerns about the cost of the bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump's main legislative accomplishment, while boosting spending on the military and border security.

The House of Representatives passed it by one vote last month, after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure would add $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt.

The Senate, also controlled by Trump's Republicans, aims to pass the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" in the next month, though senators are expected to revise the House version.

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax policy, are due to meet with Trump at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss making the bill's business-related tax breaks permanent, according to Senator Steve Daines, a panel member. Analysts have warned that such a move would greatly increase the measure's cost.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he disagreed with Musk's assessment about the cost of the bill and stood by the goal of passage by July 4.

"We have a job to do - the American people elected us to do. We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the president of the United States, and we're going to deliver on that agenda," the South Dakota lawmaker told reporters.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also dismissed Musk's complaints, telling reporters, "my friend Elon is terribly wrong."

TEST OF INFLUENCE

Musk's loud opposition to a bill that Trump has urged Republicans to pass presents a test of his political influence a week after leaving his formal role in the administration as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end. As DOGE chief, he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.

The richest person in the world, Musk had spent nearly $300 million to back Trump's presidential campaign and other Republicans in last year's elections. But he has said he would cut his political spending substantially while returning to his role as Tesla CEO.

The White House dismissed Tuesday's attack, just as Trump dismissed earlier Musk complaints about the legislation.

"Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing. "It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it."

REPUBLICAN DISAGREEMENTS

Senate Republicans were divided about the bill even before Musk's missives. Deficit hawks are pushing for deeper spending cuts than the $1.6 trillion over a decade in the House version, while another coalition of rural-state Republicans are pushing to protect the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income Americans.

One of the hawks, Senator Mike Lee, called on party members to use the Trump bill and future spending measures to reduce the deficit.

"We must commit now to doing so, as this is what voters justifiably expect - and indeed deserve - from the GOP Congress," the Utah Republican said on X while reposting Musk's message.

Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate and can afford to lose support from no more than three members, if they expect to pass the legislation with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance by a July 4 deadline.

Another hardliner, Senator Ron Johnson, predicted that lawmakers would not be able to meet the deadline and secure an adequate number of cuts.

Lee and Johnson are among at least four Senate hardliners demanding that the bill be changed to restrict the growth of the debt and deficit.

The faction of party lawmakers determined to limit spending cuts to project Medicaid beneficiaries and business investments in green energy initiatives is of similar size.

"I certainly have an interest in making sure people with disabilities are not harmed. But also, there's the broad issue of how does it affect hospital reimbursements," Senator Jerry Moran told reporters.

"There's a set of my colleagues who are pushing to do more. And so, it turns on how do you get the votes to pass a bill," the Kansas Republican said.

Other Senate Republicans said lawmakers may have to look elsewhere to boost savings, including the possibility of leaving Trump's much touted tax break proposals for tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits for later legislation.

"Those are all Democrat priorities. I'm not sure why we shouldn't be doing that in a potential bipartisan bill to create headspace for this bill," said Republican Senator Thom Tillis.