Ukraine, China’s ‘big game’: on the razor’s edge between Russia and the West

Beijing does not take sides on the Ukrainian crisis. China, far from squeezed between Russia and the West, plays a balancing act. He insists on dialogue, on Russia’s “legitimate security concerns”, on the Minsk agreements, after having invited the Munich Security Conference to “respect the sovereignty and independence of each country”, including Ukraine. A “conflicting position” that of the Asian giant supports the Washington Post, with Beijing not explicitly supporting the latest decisions of Moscow (starting with the recognition of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, announced the day after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing), but recognizes what the Chinese consider to be Russia’s “legitimate security concerns”. “Beijing’s latest act on the razor’s edge regarding the crisis in Eastern Europe”, writes the newspaper while in the background, but not too much, there is an increasingly close relationship between China and Russia and relations between Beijing and Washington at their lowest, a close to the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Shanghai Communiqué during Nixon’s historic visit to the Asian giant. From the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and criticized the US strategy for the Indo-Pacific, an appeal for “moderation” has been made addressed to “all parties involved. “, invited to resolve the crisis with dialogue and negotiations. “The situation in Ukraine is getting worse,” said Wang, after yesterday the Chinese embassy in Kiev recommended his compatriots to “avoid unstable areas” in Ukraine, without asking them to leave the country. of the UN Security Council, the Chinese representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, called on “all parties” to “seek reasonable solutions” taking into account – the Xinhua agency reported – “mutual concerns on the basis of equality and mutual respect “. And this morning the Asian giant’s foreign ministry announced that it “will continue” contacts with “all interested parties”. Beijing has always repeated the principle of non-interference and respect for territorial integrity, even when it comes to defending itself against accusations regarding Hong Kong, Tibet or Xinjinag. And there is also his position on Taiwan – the principle of “one China” – already ‘welcomed’ by Vladimir Putin during his visit to Beijing earlier this month for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics to be defended. case that a spokeswoman for the Taiwanese presidency, Kolas Yotaka, intervened with a tweet to emphasize how “encouraging” for the island – which Beijing considers a “rebel province” to be “reunified” – “to see UN ambassadors reject the Russian imperial claims on Ukraine “. “We in Taiwan look forward to the day when the world will similarly reject China’s imperial claims on our country.” And today, the CNN stressed, the Beijing Foreign Ministry – with the spokesperson who bypassed more than a dozen questions on the Ukrainian crisis – rejected parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, reiterating that for the Asian giant it is “a historical fact and irrefutable juridical “that” there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory “. For China, writes the Washington Post, supporting a Russian invasion of Ukraine would mean damaging the already deteriorated relations with Western countries, but Beijing also wants to strengthen relations with Moscow – see the meeting earlier this month in Beijing between Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping – to counter what he sees as US efforts to block its rise as a global power. For Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank, quoted by the Post, “China wants preserving his relations with Moscow, abiding by his principles and avoiding damaging relations with the US and the EU “and” overcoming this crisis could be one of the most difficult diplomatic challenges for Xi “. At the beginning of the month, the joint declaration signed by China and Russia after the meeting between Xi and Putin engages the two countries in “unlimited” strategic relations. And since the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the newspaper recalls, Beijing has joined with Moscow by repeatedly criticizing the US and NATO. However, over the weekend, in a video link to the Munich Security Conference, Wang insisted on the importance of “respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of every country”, including Ukraine. And in China, the Post points out, the media described a crisis like “an escalation under American provocation”. It went beyond the official statements Hu Xijin, former editor of the Global Times, according to which the recognition by Russia of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk is a measure to “break the deadlock” in the crisis and “with these concrete actions “Putin” is demonstrating Russia’s strategic determination. ” While Ming Jinwei, analyst and former editor-in-chief of the Xinhua agency, wrote clearly on WeChat that “China must support Russia with emotional and moral support by refraining from stepping on the toes of the US and the EU” because “in the future, China will also need of Russia’s understanding and support as it struggles with America to resolve the Taiwan issue once and for all. “