As the Chinese press commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing, Moscow’s recognition of the two “self-proclaimed republics” of Luhanks and Donetsk and then the entry of Russian troops into the Donbass seem to plunge Beijing into real embarrassment. While China is ready to support Russia against possible Western sanctions – as evidenced by the series of agreements reached on February 4 between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, XI Jinping – it avoids engage publicly alongside his partner.
At the UN Security Council on Monday, February 21, the Chinese representative called “all parties to dialogue and seek a reasonable response to the concerns of each party”. Tuesday, in the middle of the day, in Beijing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the report of the telephone conversation that Minister Wang Yi had had, shortly before, with the head of American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, on “Ukraine and North Korea”. The Chinese Foreign Minister once again believes that we must respect “the legitimate security concerns of any country”. Neither criticism nor endorsement of Russian policy. However, three days earlier, Wang Yi had declared at the Munich security conference that “the independence and territorial integrity of all countries should be safeguarded”. “Ukraine is no exception”, he added.
Tuesday, the China Dailythe Communist Party’s English-language daily, opined in an editorial that the responsibility for the escalation lies with “Washington and NATO” who have “rejected Moscow’s demands [concernant sa] security “. However, the daily continues: “War as a solution to imaginary threats [concernant la ] security, is out of step with our times. And the cost of a war for any country could be unbearable. »
“Geopolitical benefits”
Experts are a bit more verbose. Cui Hongjian, director of the Europe department at the Institute of International Studies (CIIS) in Beijing, remarks that although Russia and China are partners, they are not allies. “We are together but we have our own space. China doesn’t have to agree with Moscow on everything. Moreover, Ukraine does not appear in the joint press release of February 4,” he explains to World.
The nationalist website Guancha.cn republish on Tuesday, an article by researcher Gao Cheng, researcher of the Academy of Sciences. It noted already six years ago that “The conflict in Ukraine will strengthen the ties between Russia and China, especially in economic matters”.
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