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Ukraine war
OpinionComment
Tom Plate
Tom Plate

Opinion | Ukraine crisis calls for China to take part in a daring diplomatic intervention

  • China has staked out a position ambiguous enough to allow quick movement away from the perception of complicity with Moscow
  • Clear thinking by Beijing is of the utmost importance to end Russia’s shelling of Ukraine and to keep the world from tipping into nuclear catastrophe

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Tom Plate
It is imperative that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government continues to edge away from the bleak dark shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resettle itself geopolitically into a better place. While it would be presumptuous to offer a detailed plan of action on how to advance by retreating, nothing less is needed right now from China’s leader.
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China need not rush, of course, but it should not hesitate to separate itself from what clearly is wrong. Recalibrating its Russia policy might not even be as torturous for Beijing as it might seem.

Though there have been rumours that Russian President Vladimir Putin had locked in China’s support when he met Xi in early February, China has staked out a position ambiguous enough to allow quick movement away from the perception of complicity with Moscow.

07:14

What China could gain, and lose, in the Ukraine-Russia crisis

What China could gain, and lose, in the Ukraine-Russia crisis

From the outset, China was tepid about the invasion, though not openly anti-war. Weeks ago, Foreign Minister Wang Yi laid out the tentative template, saying: “The current situation is not what we want to see.” Day after day, that line has held.

China should not backtrack from that obvious but helpful insinuation by hiding behind some relativistic blind or moaning anew about a past century’s humiliations by the West. What’s more, reminding the world of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, pursued without United Nations Security Council authorisation, hardly lessens the infamy of Russia’s Ukrainian spetsoperatsiya of 2022.

Special operation or not, it was wholly unsanctioned by the UN. When the Security Council sought to condemn it, Russia played its veto card. But the play was one-handed as China abstained and bought itself some time. Thinking carefully about another member state’s invasion of a sovereign state is not the worst idea ever. Xi and his team would appear to be avoiding a diplomatic and global perception blunder.
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In playing the Nazi card – trying to recycle Russia’s past glory by conjuring up the tangible villain of countless Nazis hiding in Ukrainian barns and low-profile oblasts – Putin pushed imagination into prevarication. We are expected to believe that just as Joseph Stalin taught Adolph Hitler a lesson, Putin would finish the job by defeating what he says is a pro-Nazi neighbour.
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