When China’s Foreign Ministry reproduces the content of telephone calls, it often deviates from what the interlocutors actually said. It seemed so on Tuesday evening after Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. Beijing said Kuleba said Ukraine was hoping for “China’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire.” However, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Kuleba had urged China to use its influence over Moscow to stop the Russian invasion. It’s just one example of the verbal acrobatics Beijing is currently using to present itself as a peacemaker without relinquishing its support for the aggressor Russia.
China continues to refuse to condemn or even name the invasion. It rejects sanctions against Russia and adopts Moscow’s central narrative: the cause of the war is NATO expansion. Russia’s “legitimate” security needs must be respected. The Russian army is attacking “installations” with “high-precision weapons”.