China’s 'peace plan' for Ukraine is no more than a few 'suggestions'
China releases a 12-point proposal today to solve the Russian-Ukrainian "crisis". It includes respect for the territorial integrity of countries, but does not condemn Russia’s occupation. For NATO and the EU, it is not very credible. Meanwhile, a Chinese company is getting ready to supply Russia with attack drones. At the UN, China abstains from voting against Putin's aggression against Ukraine.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – China has no “peace plan”, only “suggestions" for a political solution to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. As AsiaNews already noted, China is offering nothing concrete to stop Putin's invasion of Ukraine a year after it started.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders have reiterated several times since 24 February 2022, China’s position, laid out in 12 points, talks about a “crisis”, never mentioning a military attack by one country against another.
Nothing is said about how its 12-point proposal could be implemented, a sign of China’s unwillingness to take a proactive role as a mediator.
Instead, the proposal starts with a call to respect “the sovereignty of all countries” as well as their territorial integrity; yet, as some observers have pointed out, China fails to condemn Russia’s armed action against Ukraine.
In light of this, Western countries reacted as one might expect, coolly. NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg ventured to say that China is not credible as a mediator.
The EU Commission instead noted that China’s proposal must be read against the background of its friendship “without limits" with Moscow.
Only Wednesday, during his meeting with Putin in Moscow, China's top diplomatic envoy, Wang Yi, said that Sino-Russian cooperation is "important to stabilise the international situation”, certainly not a statement of neutrality.
China’s “peace initiative" comes after the United States accused China of planning to supply weapons to Russia, a claim Chinese leaders strongly deny.
Yet, according to German weekly Der Spiegel, the Chinese company Xi'an Bingo Intelligent Aviation Technology is negotiating with Russia’s military the mass production of attack drones with 100 prototypes ready for delivery in April.
China certainly does not want the conflict to escalate, which would undermine an already shaky international order, at a time when it is engaged in a difficult process of economic recovery at home.
At the same time, Xi would rather not see Putin lose, because he is a useful pawn against the United States and its allies in terms of geopolitical competition.
For this reason, China will continue to maintain the necessary room to manoeuvre even in such a scenario.
Indeed, it is no accident that China abstained in yesterday’s vote at the UN General Assembly, which, by a wide margin (141, 32 abstentions, and 6 against), called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.
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