I break out in hives when anyone, “independent Beijing-based journalist” or not, invokes the Panch Sheel (5PPC) to describe the PRC’s foreign policy benevolence and quietude over the past 70+ years. The same goes for Chinese invocations of Friendship as an overriding factor in bilateral relations. One must learn through experience that such Friendship, like Hindi-Chinee Bhai Bhai, lasts no longer than mutual interest does.

Even so, Mr. Mu does line up some truisms: China and Russia are not formally allied in the manner of NATO or other alliances-by-treaty; neither country must militarily support the other in the event of either initiating conflict.