In April 2023, when the world was expecting counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops, there were few events that not only had impact on the outcome of the war in Ukraine, but also provided additional information on the topic of this series of my articles — the threats to Russia and the West posed by China’s rise. Those events, from my point of view, did not receive due attention of political analysts and media.

Among those events were the visits of Brazilian President Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing, of Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu to Moscow, the telephone conversation between Xi Jinping and Zelensky and the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Japan.

Though those events were discussed in the world media, the essence of the ongoing process remained hidden in the shadow of the expectation of offensive by Ukrainian troops.
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