Gao Jian, a China Forum expert and director of the Centre for British Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, gave an interview to the Berliner Zeitung on China-Russia relations and economic prospects.

China has stayed committed to the policy of actively promoting peace talks and political settlement of the war in Ukraine and to an objective and impartial position, and has no intention of profiting from the war, said Gao. In response to concerns about China’s economic support for Russia, he stressed that the country strictly controls its exports to Russia in accordance with international law, and has never provided any military support to Russia.

Talking about US sanctions against Russia, Gao believes that the weaponization of the dollar payment system would seriously damage America’s global financial position as well as the economic interests of other countries, including China, which conduct normal trade with Russia. Meanwhile, this will, to a certain extent, speed up the development of the BRICS system and its alternative currency settlement mechanism.

In the short term, it will be difficult to build an alternative financial system globally, but the accelerated establishment of a digital currency settlement mechanism within the BRICS countries is foreseeable, especially in food, energy and other relevant sectors.