The great global part of the Middle Kingdom. And who holds what cards in it?

Chinese President Xi Jinping can be satisfied. In the space of just six months, all the important world leaders arrived in Beijing: French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and finally, shortly after each other, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In this case, analysts point out that it is extremely rare for China to host the leaders of the United States and Russia in a single week. However, all the visits collectively confirm China's growing global political and economic influence.

The motivation of individual powers for closer relations is dictated primarily by economic and geopolitical interests.

France is seeking to use the Chinese market to reduce external dependency while expanding cooperation in the fields of aviation and nuclear energy to strengthen Europe's global influence.

Germany must keep economic cooperation going, which is absolutely essential for the German economic model. Last year, China became Germany's largest trading partner, replacing the United States. However, trade imbalances are evident. German imports from China reached 170.6 billion euros (4.16 trillion crowns), but exports to China lagged behind – reaching 81.3 billion euros (1.984 trillion crowns). Analysts called it a "China shock."

Britain has been trying to maintain trade and financial ties with China in an attempt to find economic relief in the post-Brexit context. Sailing alone in global waters is simply very difficult for London, and China can help "keep the course".

Canada, in turn, also sees China as a certain economic counterweight to Trump's intentions to join Canada with the US as the 51st state. Prime Minister Carney has therefore ordered a turn in mutual relations, which were very tense until recently.

Trump's visit then confirmed that relations between the United States and China are the most important bilateral relationship on a global scale. This is despite the fact that no major political, economic or security agreement has been signed in Beijing. This is also based on the great economic interdependence of the two powers, as the total trade exchange amounts to 658 billion dollars a year (approximately 13.7 trillion crowns).

American industry, including military industry, cannot function without the supply of Chinese rare earths, on the other hand, for the Chinese economy, the export of Chinese goods to the American market is still the basis of China's economic strategy. It was so logical that the heads of the most important American technology companies – Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX), Jensen Huang (Nvidia) and Tim Cook (Apple) – traveled to the Middle Kingdom along with Trump.

At the same time, both powers need to keep their relations under control despite animosities and occasional diplomatic and economic clashes. And Trump also showed his "flexibility" when he suggested that the US does not have to completely "bleed" for Taiwan.

The Russian president then arrived this week for a visit to China for the twenty-fifth time during his rule. Economic relations with China are crucial for Russia at a time when it is facing Western sanctions due to the war in Ukraine. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade reached about $228 billion in 2025, surpassing the $200 billion mark for the third year in a row. For China, Russia is an important "energy rear" at a time of geopolitical uncertainty, which is confirmed by the conflict in Iran and the events around the Strait of Hormuz. And the Russians are ready to accommodate China – it was enough to apply to Putin's delegation, which included all the major Russian energy oligarchs.

One of Putin's priorities is to build a new gas pipeline between Russia and China. The two sides have been negotiating the Power of Siberia 2 project for several years. The 2,600-kilometer-long pipeline is supposed to transport up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually from eastern Russia through Mongolia to northern China. However, China is conducting tough negotiations with Russia as its "junior partner" on prices, supply volumes and conditions, and this has not yet been completed during the visit to Beijing.

But let's also follow the political signals sent in Beijing. Xi made it clear that even if he managed to stabilize relations with America, it would not be at the expense of a "borderless partnership" with Putin. This will also guide China's stance on Russia's war in Ukraine. After all, the joint political statement from the visit states that it is essential to address its "root causes" in order to resolve the conflict, by which we clearly mean Western efforts to get Ukraine to join NATO. At the same time, Putin said that cooperation between the two powers is "undoubtedly a factor of deterrence and stability."

And the main common denominator between Moscow and Beijing may be that they want to defy a world that has been dominated by the US for decades. The question, of course, is whether Trump's impulsive foreign policy is helping them in this, something that benefits cooperation between two great powers that have learned that chaos can sometimes be the strongest bond in geopolitical partnerships.

In addition, however, it is also true that China can position itself as a stable and responsible superpower that, unlike Russia and the US, is not involved in complex wars.

He is simply playing a high global game, in which, as can be seen from Beijing's important visits, he has enough cards in his hands.

Miloš Balabán, Lidovky.cz