The opening of the valve on the Power of Siberia pipeline demonstrated the fundamental role of energy in the strategic partnership between Russia and China. It is not all there is to the partnership, of course. Moscow and Beijing are conjoined by their emphasis on “absolute sovereignty,” their rejection of the “universal” values and norms propounded by the West, their reliance on state-dominated economies, and their opposition to what they call the would-be “hegemonic” position and “unilateralism” of the United States.
