ACADEMY OF DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT – INSTITUTE OF SKY POLITICS

On sincerity and cunning

The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu divided the art of war into four levels: stratagems (military cunning), diplomacy, tactics, frontal assault on fortresses. Where the pinnacle of the art of war is victory at the upper levels of stratagems and diplomacy by proxy with a demonstration of one's strength, but without the use of weapons.

Unlike the biblical scheme: whoever is not with us is against us, and the third is superfluous, there is no third option, the Chinese scheme of the art of war is tripartite: we ourselves – our enemies – our allies.

It is fundamentally important to grasp the specificity of the Chinese tripartiteness: our opponents possess priority of attention, whereas our allies are secondary in the status of relations, and we ourselves attain victory over our enemies at the expense of and through the hands of our allies.  

On a worldwide scale of WWIII of a new hybrid type, it would not be superfluous to recall the fundamental military-political concept of the PRC: Chairman Mao Zedong's Theory of dividing the world into three parts – the greatest contribution to the treasury of Marxism-Leninism.

<b><strong style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Dragon in a team: first the opponent – the USA; then the allies – Iran and the RF</strong></b>
<b><strong style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Dragon in a team: first the opponent – the USA; then the allies – Iran and the RF</strong></b>

The classic of Marxism is the dialectic of the struggle of two opposites, driving progress forward and upward in leaps of attaining a new quality in the synthesis of the remnants of the past with the future.

With Mao Zedong it is the law of change in a team of three forces, where the active struggle of two forces with the third force in the passive leads to the rotation of the entire team in favor of the force situated above the fray.

Here is the fundamental difference between the forward movement of history – progress from the rotational movement – change.

Victory by proxy, at the expense of an ally, is achieved by China by retreating into the passive behind the back of the ally in his struggle with the common enemy.

The current moment of global transformation with the transition from an industrial society to an information society is characterized by active struggle in the war of weapons of the RF with the USA and NATO on the Ukrainian theater of operations and by the propagandistic thunder of the "drums of war" between Russia and United Europe, expected already by 2030. 

At the same time, the PRC consistently advocates a peaceful resolution of contradictions through diplomacy on the basis of the UN Charter. It does not interfere in conflicts and strengthens constructive cooperation with the USA, smoothing over sharp edges in the unceasing high-level dialogue on trade, economic and financial issues.

From the Sky Politics theorists' top-down view, the playing out of the new alignment of forces in the Great Game of world projects at the card table of history (the round began in 2025 with the game ordered by D. Trump) now continues in the following sequence of moves:

  • Visit of Charles III to the USA to D. Trump on 27-30.04.26
  • Visit of D. Trump to the PRC to Xi Jinping on 14-15.05.26
  • Visit of V. Putin to the PRC to Xi Jinping approximately 21.05.26

We will begin the comments from the perspective of Sky Politics from the end of the mise-en-scène.

During Putin's visit to Beijing, Xi will demonstrate the solid strategic (by no means operational) interaction of the PRC with the RF.

In this connection, the official visit of PRC Minister of Defense Dong Jun to Moscow on 23.04.26 (without wide media coverage) serves as an intelligence indicator of the possible preparation of a new Chinese-Russian treaty (the old "On Good-Neighborliness" expires on 16.07.26) with the consolidation of a fresh formula of mutual military support, possibly similar to Russia's treaty with the DPRK "On Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", Article 4: 

"In the event that one of the Parties is subjected to an armed attack by any state or several states and finds itself thereby in a state of war, the other Party shall immediately render military and other assistance with all the means at its disposal in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter." 

The Chinese need the new formula of military interaction with the Russian Federation in order to keep Russia in the first echelon of confrontation with the USA and NATO along the front in Europe, for in the triad of forces "we ourselves" (the PRC), standing back to back with the Russian Federation, overcome "our adversary" (the USA) by the hands of "our ally" (the Russian Federation).

The trouble is that the Kremlin people simply cannot grasp ternary schemes, persisting in the arrangement – the third is superfluous, a third is not given.

Let us return to the beginning of the mise-en-scène. 28.04.26 King Charles III of the UK, in the US Congress, called for preserving NATO, supporting the regime in Ukraine and jointly starting a war with Russia (China again in the shadows).

So that our multipolarists do not find themselves in an ambush of active confrontation with NATO in Europe to the benefit of the PRC on a worldwide scale, Russia should negotiate with China not about a military partnership on the basis of the UN Charter, but about a family of peoples of non-Western civilizations on the basis of the ethics of the Unified State of Genghis Khan.

And in order, in the triad of forces PRC-RF-USA, to find itself in the position of judge over the clash between the PRC and the USA for the place of leader, the RF must urgently go into a passive mode: complete the Special Military Operation on the Ukrainian theater of operations, wind down anti-Western propaganda, stop persisting with the elimination of the root cause of the conflict, which in fact is not eliminable, and announce our victory over the evil machinations of the mad arsonists of nuclear conflagration.

Blessed are the peacemakers, and not the angry Z-patriots. 

The split between the PRC and the USA on a global scale is caused by the change of the technological mode of the economy and the completion of the American cycle of capital accumulation with the transition to the Asian cycle of new capital of the era of the information society.

Russia, in the bustle of perestroika, acceleration and glasnost, missed the 5th techno-mode, and did not fit into the 6th mode of nanotechnologies, biotech, digital, AI and quantum computing.

In this reality, the saber-rattling of "doomsday" nuclear weapons on the part of the RF looks like an inappropriate, dilapidated scarecrow. 

It would be timely to go into a passive mode, not stick out, accumulate strength in the wave technologies of the 7th mode and wait for a suitable moment in the cycle of changes, in order to overtake without catching up.  

The war of meanings, as the core of the East–West confrontation of a new hybrid type, which cannot be avoided, should be transferred by the multipolarists of the RF to the multilateral international debate platform of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Executed by Andrey Devyatov  No1109 of 29.04.26

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