Perfect Imbalance seeks to answer one of the most important outstanding questions in twenty-first century politics: how close are Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China? Written by a scholar fluent in both Chinese and Russian, this book examines the current China–Russia partnership from several perspectives. First, what Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and their respective foreign policy establishments publicly say about the relationship between the countries. Second, how the two establishments frame their tangible cooperation on matters such as security, the Arctic, space and international relations with other Eurasian countries. Finally, the book examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon Sino–Russian relations. Putin and Xi’s stories, where possible, are cross-checked with what is really happening. Perfect Imbalance argues that although Russia has not pivoted towards China, and although there is no official Sino–Russian alliance is in sight, the relationship will continue to grow and expand in search for a perfect imbalance. Dr Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova is a political scientist, China scholar, Head of Political Science PhD programme and China Studies Centre at Riga Stradins University, Head of the Asia program at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, a member of the China in Europe Research Network (CHERN) and European Think Tank Network on China (ETNC).