Fardella, Enrico, *'When History rhymes: China’s relations with Russia and the war in Ukraine'*, in *Asia Maior*, Vol XXXIV, 2023, 407-433.

In a recent publication, the renowned expert on Sino-Russian relations, Inge Bekkevold, wrote that in the last century «China has seen Russia as imperialist, a comrade in arms, an enemy and a partner, and is now debating whether it should be an ally». This paper attempts to connect these views with the most recent evolution of Sino-Russian relations at the time of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It first describes Russia’s role as China’s territorial threat and as a political antagonist from the end of the Qing dynasty to the fall of the Soviet Union. It then looks at the rise of Russia as China’s main anti-hegemonic partner after the Cold War, with a special focus on the evolution of the Sino-Russian «unlimited partnership» during Xi Jinping’s second mandate and its sudden revision after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The analysis will then address the evolution of China’s most recent «pro-Russian neutrality» as Beijing’s attempt to detach itself from Moscow’s military adventurism while maintaining its strategic anti-hegemonic alignment with Moscow. In the conclusion, the paper will try to assess the rationale of China’s revision of its «unlimited partnership» on the basis of Beijing’s historical experience with Russia and will then point out China’s interests and divergences with Moscow in order to provide a useful conceptual toolkit to foresee the future evolution of Sino-Russian relations.