The tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine issue culminated with Crimea's referendum and the West's move to impose sanctions on Russia. The new international hotspots have indicated that geopolitical competition is still one of the basic features of international politics, despite the strong trend of globalization. And China, as a major power, should also be vigilant about the geopolitics around it.

The West responded strongly to Vladimir Putin's recent actions in Ukraine. Barack Obama called Russia's movements "violations of international law and its encroachments on Ukraine;" the Group of Seven industrialized countries warned that Russia's actions "could have grave implications for the legal order that protects the unity and sovereignty of all states."

Objectively speaking, these statements are not without legal basis since the Crimea issue involves the principle of sovereignty. But it is too hypocritical for the West to talk about sovereignty. It seems that the United States and the West have poor memories. Fifteen years ago, it was just the United States and NATO that bombed Yugoslavia, overriding the principle of sovereignty in the name of safeguarding Kosovo's self-determination. And that story is the reverse of today's conflict over Crimea. That's why Putin said that there is a precedent when questioned by Barack Obama over the issue.

The conflict over Crimea is geopolitical by nature. The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of former Soviet Union never concluded the geopolitical competition between the West and Russia, which inherited most of the legacies of the Soviet Union. The West not only included most of the newly independent states into NATO and the European Union but also wanted to embrace Ukraine and the Central Asian states by promoting the Color Revolution. And the Ukraine issue is one part of its strategy to further squeeze Russia's living space.

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• Crimea starts reforms to move toward Moscow
• Ukraine to appeal to UN for demilitarization in Crimea

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