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Arms dealers or peacemakers: where is China headed in the Ukraine war?

2023-02-21T07:25:35.368Z


The US accuses China of considering supplying arms to Russia. Beijing, on the other hand, is neutral – albeit with a strong bias towards the Kremlin.


The US accuses China of considering supplying arms to Russia.

Beijing, on the other hand, is neutral – albeit with a strong bias towards the Kremlin.

Munich/Beijing – When China talks about world peace, it sounds wonderful at first.

"To create a safer world, we must all insist on respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," Wang Yi, Beijing's top diplomat, said at the Munich Security Conference last Saturday.

A sentence that one would like to sign immediately with a view to Ukraine.

But Wang doesn't just mean Ukraine, but also China and Taiwan: Beijing regards the democratically governed island state as part of Chinese territory, which must be integrated into its own territory by force if necessary.

As far as the Ukraine war is concerned, the same assurances have been coming from Beijing for about a year, but concrete action is still a long way off Xi Jinping.

Criticism of Russia, of its war of aggression and of the atrocities in Ukraine, however, is not heard from Beijing.

Instead, China plays down the war as a "conflict", blames the USA and NATO for the escalation and at the same time claims that what is happening in distant Europe is actually not China's business.

China and Taiwan: That's what the conflict is about

China and Taiwan: That's what the conflict is about

'Everything from ammunition to the guns themselves': is China backing Russia in the Ukraine war?

"Some forces may not be happy to see peace talks," Wang Yi whispered on Saturday.

"They may not care about the suffering in Europe, they may have strategic goals that go beyond Ukraine." If the US is to be believed, it's the opposite, with China benefiting from the war and working to prolong it.

Beijing supports Russia "politically and rhetorically," said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in several television interviews on Sunday.

But what worries him even more: "that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine."

What exactly could Beijing deliver?

"Everything from ammo to the guns themselves," Blinken said.

He did not initially give any further details, and Blinken also left open where this information came from.

In any case, in a conversation with Wang in Munich, he warned of the consequences if China got serious.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin rejected the allegations on Monday;

it is "the US, not China, that is constantly sending weapons to the battlefield," he said.

However, there have long been signs that state-owned Chinese armaments companies are supplying goods to Russia that could also be used militarily - a violation of US sanctions that China has not adopted, but is not officially circumventing either.

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No sheet of paper fits between them: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Vladivostok in 2018.

© Mikhail Metzel/Tass/Imago

China seems eager to fill Russia's war coffers

So far, China's stance can be described with some goodwill as "pro-Russian neutrality" because the country does not actively intervene in the war.

Arms deliveries would be a further breach of taboo and a new level of escalation in this war, which began almost a year ago.

In addition, China seems to be trying to fill Russia's war coffers.

According to media reports, Beijing bought large amounts of Russian crude last year, even at a time when market prices had peaked and most other countries were looking for alternatives or introducing price caps.

"This strategy was most likely highly unprofitable for China, but it filled the coffers of the Kremlin," write the analysts of the China-Russia Report.

Despite its apparent support for Russia – just days before the start of the war, both countries reaffirmed their “borderless” partnership aimed at breaking US dominance – Beijing appears to believe it can act as an honest broker in a possible Moscow-Kiev peace deal can.

At the Munich Security Conference, top diplomat Wang Yi announced a kind of peace initiative: "We will present something.

Namely the Chinese position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” he says, without giving details.

Next Friday, just in time for the anniversary of the Russian invasion, Xi Jinping reportedly wants to speak with a "peace speech".

In any case, a concrete "peace plan" is unlikely to come from Beijing, but rather warm but non-binding words.

China can then claim

But first, Wang is expected in the Kremlin shortly – for a meeting with Sergei Lavrov, his “old friend”, as he likes to call the Russian foreign minister.

It was initially not known whether he would also meet Vladimir Putin.

In any case, a trip to Kiev is not on Wang's agenda.

No wonder: according to all that is known, President Xi Jinping has not considered it necessary to even call his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the past twelve months.

List of rubrics: © Mikhail Metzel/Tass/Imago

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-02-21

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