Putin deals China winning hand as sanctions power rival
In 1979, at the start of Deng Xiaoping overhaul of the economy, China’s output was 40 percent of that of the Soviet Russian Republic -- the present-day Russian Federation, according to a study by the Centre for European Reform. By 2010, it was four-times larger.
That disparity gives Xi the upper hand over Putin, who, with few options left, will have to keep making concessions to China, according to Ja Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore.