China's diplomatic balancing act in the Ukraine conflict

China's leadership did not mention the "situation in Ukraine" with a single word in its work report to the National People's Congress (NPC). Instead, it has spent the past few weeks trying to take a neutral position in a war in which there really is no such thing as a neutral position. The Chinese rhetoric is a diplomatic balancing act with an even more uncertain outcome. In the year of the all-important 20th Party Congress this fall, Ukraine has thus become a central quandary for the Chinese leadership.