- One year of war: Russia remains an important partner
- GTAI Silk Road report
- BASF executive Dubourg resigns over China dispute
- EU bans TikTok from staff phones
- TSMC apparently delays Europe projects
- US reveals photo of spy balloon
- Mining accident leaves dozens dead
- China Perspective: The case of Hu Xinyu
One year of war in Ukraine – one year of Chinese support for the aggressor Russia. From Xi Jinping’s point of view, it made sense at the time to get behind Vladimir Putin’s project of a great empire. A strong Russia, but one ostracized by the West, would be the perfect partner to create an anti-Western, authoritarian world order. Putin would also have sounded out for him how the U.S. would behave toward the incorporation of a supposedly “very own territory.”
As is well known, the precedent Xi hoped for in taking Taiwan turned into the opposite: a cautionary tale. A strong and stable Russia remains all the more in China’s interest. The new authoritarian bloc would be decisively weakened by a collapse of its big neighbor. This makes rumors of more material support for Russia’s war effort seem increasingly realistic and makes successful mediation less likely, analyzes Michael Radunski.
And trade between China and Russia is also flourishing. The largest contracts currently go into oil deliveries and pipeline construction. This is also one of the findings of the annual report on China’s activities along the Silk Road by the investment promotion agency GTAI.
The bulk of China’s foreign investment accordingly goes into the energy sector. In pure numbers, this makes Russia and Saudi Arabia the most important partners along the Silk Road. The Silk Road Initiative generally supports many autocratic countries. As a partner of GTAI, China.Table publishes the report. We will continue to regularly take a look at the Belt and Road activities.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
China tends to stay on Russia’s side
In February 2022, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin pledged “boundless friendship” between China and Russia. It is no coincidence that Putin began the invasion of Ukraine only a few days later.
Putin has been forcing his friend Xi to walk a tricky balancing act ever since: Officially, China remains neutral, not least to avoid losing Europe as a partner altogether. But a closer look reveals plenty of evidence proving just how firmly China stands by Russia – rhetorically, economically and also politically.
- The US is to blame: China does not condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. On the contrary, Beijing is convinced that the USA and NATO are responsible. The West disregarded Russia’s legitimate security interests, it claims. With this, Beijing is adopting the Kremlin’s justification for the war. Another Kremlin narrative coming out of the mouths of Chinese politicians is NATO’s eastward expansion. At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Wang Yi cryptically murmured that some forces apparently had no interest in peace.
- Putin – Xi – Zelenskiy: While Xi and Putin have directly spoken at least twice in the past twelve months, there is complete silence between Xi and Volodymyr Zelenskiy. This hardly seems neutral. This culminated in a newspaper interview where the Ukrainian President asked Xi to contact him.
- No war: The word “war” does not cross the lips of Chinese cadres, even 12 months later. But Beijing is flexible: In the beginning, they used the Russian description of a “special military operation” (特别军事行动). They have since moved away from this, but even calling it a “crisis” is a mocking trivialization of the gruesome battles.
China’s pro-Russian neutrality
While all are rather pointing to close ties between the two nations, China has attempted to demonstrate its neutrality over the past twelve months and successfully managed to confuse observers more than once. Speaking to Chancellor Scholz, Xi emphasized that he apparently dissuaded Putin from using nuclear weapons.
Continue reading now
… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.
Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now