Russia is waiting for the visit of President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping. This was announced on February 22 by President Putin. The Wall Street Journal notes that Beijing wants to play a more active role in ending Russia’s war against Ukraine and the meeting with Putin is part of a plan to advance multilateral peace talks.
According to The Wall Street Journal sources, preparations for the visit are still at an early stage, and a meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping could take place “in the coming months.”
Against the backdrop of talk about the forthcoming visit of Xi Jinping, Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, arrived in Moscow. He met with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and then in the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin. Earlier at the Munich Security Conference, Wang Yi said that on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China would publish a “peace plan” to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
Natalia Butyrskaya, an expert on East Asia, spoke on the air of Current Time about the details of the visit of a Chinese diplomat to Moscow, as well as about what kind of peace plan China is ready to offer.
– Do you think China is really involved in the search for a way to end Russia’s war against Ukraine?
– I would say that China has chosen its own strategy, which is designed to show the world China as a peacemaker, that is, to use this situation in order to score points. And at the same time, China, offering its peace initiative, trying to wedge itself into this peace process, immediately opposes itself to the United States of America and plays on this: China offers negotiations and dialogue, while the United States of America offers Ukraine weapons, thereby they add oil on fire.
In our situation, China is a Trojan horse that is trying to win its image points, and, on the other hand, to get involved in the process in order to support Russia, which today is not showing success at the front, and there is a high probability that Russia may be defeated.
– What is the cause of this concern? Why is China scary?
– Despite the neutrality that China has been proclaiming throughout this year, if we follow its behavior, China has been very active behind Russia’s back, began to produce narratives of Russia and support it economically. This is a serious plus for the Russian government, which was able to diversify its economy to some extent and also continue the war using this money.
China also leveled all the efforts of European countries, which concerned sanctions and influencing Russia not only by helping Ukraine, but also by containing Russia in every possible way. Because Russia is a really important strategic partner in China’s fight against the United States of America. And so China is trying, together with Russia, to build a comfortable, as they say, multipolar world.
And Wang Yi talked about this during a meeting with Patrushev. The parties said that they would work on deepening relations in order to build their vision on the international arena and their concept, so to speak, of fair international relations, in which there would be no place for hegemony, pointing to the United States of America, in which there would be no place for bloc confrontation and one-man rule. That is, in their opinion, it is a fair world.
But, unfortunately, China does not proceed from the point of view of the position of who is the aggressor and who is the victim in this war. And until there is division – and there is none in Chinese rhetoric – we, Ukraine, as a party, cannot hope that the Chinese position will help us.
– That is, this is such a search for a peaceful solution, conditionally, which would suit Russia in this case? Is this what China is doing?
– What is voiced by both the media and Chinese politicians: they offer dialogue and negotiations. In fact, today the Korean form is proposed for Russia – that is, to stop the fire. They say that the parties must stop the confrontation, the European countries, they also constantly insist on this, must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, and after the ceasefire, the parties must sit down at the negotiating table.
What mechanism does China propose so that Ukraine can return its territories? He does not offer a specific mechanism. Talk about dialogue, talks is empty talk when there is no call to the aggressor side to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine. Unfortunately, we do not hear this. That is, by imposing the Korean option now, China is playing on the side of Russia, which has been committing a number of acts for a long time in order to force Ukraine to peace. This tactic and strategy of Moscow started back in the summer, when the Russian army failed to gain victories and was unable to advance on the battlefield. And we see how it launched an aggression against civilian infrastructure, how it actively shells Ukrainian cities, thereby “forcing” both our government and our population to peace.
And today, China, standing behind Russia, is proposing this peace plan, which carries a very cunning and very bad trend for Ukraine that Ukraine should sit down at the negotiating table, thereby abandoning the military path, from military victories that are possible in the current situation, given that European countries and the United States of America say that they are ready to support Ukraine and are ready to provide weapons, which was very difficult for the Ukrainian authorities to obtain, even these types of weapons.
“ For a whole year, we have not seen any criticism of Russia from China and no statements at all about this war. Can you explain why China decided to join this process right now?
– We see how European countries, Euro-Atlantic unity now revolves around the victory of Ukraine and around assistance to Ukraine. And China understands that today a new international architecture is being formed, because if Ukraine wins, the world will look completely different. And it is not in China’s interest to have a liberal, democratic world and a new international architecture that is based on Western rules. Therefore, he is included in the process, supporting Russia, so that this world is still closer to his vision and to his desires.
Source : Current Time
