Washington scaremongering China's normal trade: China Daily editorial

The warnings and threats the United States has issued to try and cajole and coerce countries not to trade with Russia have no legitimacy, as they represent only the will of Washington, if not just a small group of politicians who are trying to hijack the agenda of the country.

Yet Western media outlets have scrutinized the 2022 Eastern Economic Forum Russia held in Vladivostok from Monday to Thursday with the aim of identifying which countries have the audacity to continue their economic and trade cooperation with Russia in defiance of the US-led sanctions against the country.

They have paid special attention to trying to find evidence to prove that China is helping Russia.

That more than 5,000 participants from 67 countries and regions, including some allies and partners of the US, have attended the forum and a number of multilateral and bilateral cooperation agreements have been signed, particularly agreements on supplies of energy and food, is a telling sign of the fact that the US' intimidation has not worked.

On the contrary, it is the harsh sanctions the US has imposed on Russia that have spurred these countries to flock to buy oil, gas, chemical fertilizers and food from Russia.

Some Western media outlets have criticized China for not exercising due "restraint" in its dealings with Russia.

But as friendly neighbors, it is natural that China and Russia should have strong economic and trade exchanges and seek to boost them.

Russia's Far East region has become an important region for economic cooperation between the two countries. China's cooperation with Russia is not subject to the attitude of Washington. China-Russia relations are not an alliance, and China-Russia cooperation does not target a third party.

In the first eight months of this year, bilateral trade between China and Russia jumped 31.4 percent year-on-year to $117.2 billion.

What should be "restrained" is not the legitimate cooperation between other countries and Russia, but the high-handed troublemaking of politicians in Washington.

In pointing scaremongering fingers at China's cooperation with Russia, some Washington politicians are trying to link China and Russia together so they can fabricate a monolithic non-Western "threat" to the US in pursuit of their own agendas.

But contrary to the picture they are trying to paint, it is the US and the alliances and cliques it has formed that threaten world security and stability.