Xi Jinping has secretly disliked Russia, - British journalist.

Michael Sheridan, author of the new book 'The Red Emperor - Xi Jinping and his China' and a long-Time foreign correspondent in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, revealed a critically important episode in shaping Xi Jinping's foreign policy views.

In the Silicon Curtain podcast, Sheridan, who worked as a correspondent for the Sunday Times in the Far East for 20 years, based in Hong Kong and later in Bangkok, shared information about the visit of Xi's mentor, Defense Minister Guanbiao, to the United States.

'I found a declassified American document from the Carter era, which provided a detailed description of his mentor and first patron's visit to Washington, the then Defense Minister Guanbiao,' Sheridan noted.

This visit took place in 1980, which is particularly important, as at that time Xi Jinping was in the early stages of his political career. 'At that time, Xi Jinping was his junior personal secretary, constantly by his side in Beijing, working with classified documents,' Sheridan emphasized.

The expert revealed the content of Guanbiao's conversation with the American Vice President, demonstrating the depth of Chinese distrust of the USSR: 'Guanbiao sat down for lunch with the US Vice President in 1980 and told him why they engineered the Sino-Soviet split. He said Stalin was China's only friend... after Stalin, Soviet leaders were arrogant and self-confident, and they wanted to reduce China to the level of an agrarian satellite state that would be the granary of socialism. They told the Chinese not to build any industry and declared that they wanted to deploy troops and naval units on Chinese territory'.

Sheridan highlights the influence of this episode on shaping Xi Jinping's worldview: 'He grew up without much formal education, absorbing this lesson from one of the key people who influenced his life'.

According to the expert, this explains Xi's deeply rooted distrust of Russia: 'Deep down, he remembers the treaties of the 19th century, by which the tsars took over all the eastern provinces of China beyond the river and made them part of the Russian Empire'.

Sheridan makes an important conclusion about Xi's personal attitude towards Russia: 'Xi Jinping secretly dislikes and fears Russia'.