Free Republic

Regardless, China-Russia relations grew more strained than outsiders might imagine, with Russia finally taking a big gamble: It would drop an informational bomb on Beijing. The subject of that information was then Foreign Minister Qin, who had been tapped for the post by Xi. It's easy to see what might have motivated Russia. Being China's top diplomat, Qin would have been the person responsible for sending the Chinese delegation to Ukraine. Russia labeled Qin as pro-U.S. as he had served as ambassador to the U.S. for a short period before being tapped as foreign minister. So it "passed on internal...