When contacted for comment, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told Newsweek: "Regarding China-Russia relations, in recent years, with the joint efforts of both sides, China-Russia relations have maintained a stable, healthy and high-level development trend. "Long-term good-neighborliness, friendship, mutual benefit, cooperation and win-win results have become the distinctive characteristics of the relationship between the two countries."
The emergence of the document comes against the backdrop of a shifting alliance between Moscow and Beijing. Both countries have forged closer ties in recent years, despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Putin and Xi declaring a "no-limits partnership" in 2022.