December 29th, 2025: How China Is Exploiting Russia & U.S. Strikes ISIS
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It's Monday, the 29th of December. We are almost to the very end of 2025. Well, I hope all had a very happy and peaceful and relaxing Christmas. And, of course, Boxing Day. Don't forget Boxing Day. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. Let's get briefed. First up, China and Russia. Well, they look closer than ever. But what's being sold as partnership is really a story about leverage and dependence and who's quietly calling the shots. I'll explain how Beijing is exploiting Russian weakness. Later in the show, Christmas Day airstrikes in Nigeria. That doesn't sound very festive. The U.S. hits ISIS hard, and President Trump makes it clear there's a limit to how long the killing of Christians in Nigeria will be tolerated.
Plus, Israel announces it has killed an Iranian Quds Force member involved in planning attacks across the region. And finally, in today's back of the brief, Israel becomes the first country to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent state. And that's a move that is drawing sharp condemnation from the international community. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. Today we're starting off with a topic that's worth looking at as we wrap up our final week of the PDB for 2025. Now, over the past 12 months, we've heard a lot about the growing ties between Russia and China. It's a blossoming bromance that is supposedly built on shared interests and respect. The two countries appear closer than ever before, but appearances, of course, as usual, are in fact deceiving.
And that brings us to a handy rule of thumb that I like to use when trying to understand Beijing's moves. When China makes a move, when they take some decision, it's doing what's best for China, always. If you strip away the rhetoric about strategic partnerships and multipolar worlds and no-limits friendships, you'll almost always find Beijing pursuing its own interests, economic leverage, strategic advantage and long-term influence. And nowhere is that dynamic clearer than in China's relationship with Russia, ever since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in 2022. Now, on the surface, it can look like China has thrown Russia a lifeline, and they have in a sense, buying its energy, expanding trade, providing diplomatic cover, and refusing to join Western sanctions.
But if you look closer, you'll quickly realize that every way that China is helping Russia is in reality an act of exploitation, one that strengthens Beijing while locking Moscow into a position of dependency. It's not an alliance of equals, in other words. It's a relationship where one side has options and the other, well, really doesn't. One of the clearest examples, of course, is energy. When Europe cut back sharply on Russian oil and gas after the invasion, Moscow lost its most lucrative customers almost overnight. China stepped in, but of course, on its own terms. China now buys vast quantities of Russian oil and gas at steep discounts. Those purchases, of course, help fuel Russia's war machine, but they also permanently reset the balance of power in that relationship.
Russia doesn't get to name its price anymore. It takes what it can get. China knows Russia has limited alternatives, and it negotiates accordingly. Projects like the Power of Siberia pipeline, that's a massive natural gas link carrying Russian fuel directly into northern China, well, often framed as symbols of partnership. In reality, that sort of project binds Russia's energy infrastructure eastward at a time when it's lost access to premium European markets. Even proposed expansions like a second pipeline are being slow-walked by Beijing, which has no urgency and every incentive to extract better terms.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:51
2
How is China exploiting Russia's dependency amid the Ukraine war?
4:51–17:06
3
How has the relationship between China and Russia evolved since 2022?
17:06–19:23
4
What are the economic consequences of China's energy deals with Russia?
19:23–21:28
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The President's Daily Brief
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