Russia launches lab to study Xi Jinping ideology

China has attempted to position itself as a neutral peacemaker in the Ukraine war | Pool photo by Kenzaburo Fukuhara via Getty Images

Russia has set up the first-ever program outside China to study the ideology of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the autocratic leader in Beijing who keeps a fierce grip on civil society and recently moved to become ruler for life.

The Xi Jinping Thought Research Laboratory has been established at a major China studies institute in Moscow, with the goal of researching Xi’s ideas on economics, foreign and domestic policy, social policy, culture, art and ideology, according to the institute’s website.

China and Xi remain among the Kremlin’s top global allies, even after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

In 2025, the center will publish a series of scientific studies to acquaint Russian readers, including the authorities, with Xi’s ideas, and their significance for the development of China and Russia-China relations.

“We are well aware that today Xi Jinping’s ideas determine China’s policy in many areas,” Kirill Babaev, director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICSA RAS), told the Chinese Xinhua news agency, on Tuesday.

“We need to know and analyze Xi Jinping’s ideas very well, because China today is our main strategic partner, our main economic partner. Therefore, in order to build relationships most effectively, our government needs to have a good understanding of what the ideological basis for the development of today’s China is,” he added.