In the upheaval of the early 21st century, in which the supremacy of the West no longer seems so self-evident or even endangered, interest is increasingly focussed on Russia and China ̶ Russia, which is trying to assert its interests in Ukraine by military means, and China, which is building on its former greatness as a result of unprecedented economic development and expanding its influence globally. Following the end of the Cold War, both states are once again perceived as enemies by the West, both individually and as a potential tandem. On the one hand, the rapprochement between the two states is due to the general political climate. For example, Russia, which fundamentally sees itself as a European state, is increasingly orientating itself towards Asia for political and economic reasons in view of its enmity with the West. China is also looking for allies where it can find them. On the other hand, the two states are also neighbours with a long common border and a history of relations stretching back several centuries, whereas it took far longer for diplomatic contacts to be established between China and Western Europe. Until the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 as a result of the Opium War, there were no legally formalised relations between Western European states and China.1