Zhou Bo

Opinion | In Ukraine and Gaza, China’s great power comes with great responsibility

Beijing is starting to have a say in regions where it has traditionally downplayed any security role, but this comes at a cost

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Zhou Bo

Published: 5:30am, 9 Aug 2024Updated: 6:05am, 9 Aug 2024

History is mostly made up of the mundane but remembered for the remarkable. For historians of Chinese diplomacy, China’s success in restoring diplomatic ties between arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia might well be remembered as a turning point. The signing of the Beijing Declaration for unity by 14 Palestinian factions should have raised eyebrows further – in a most volatile region, China has succeeded in herding the cats, at least for a while.

Can China build on these to become a global peacemaker?

The precondition to being a peacemaker is being trusted for neutrality or, more precisely, impartiality. The neutrality of great powers is not normally very reliable because, given the realism of international relations, self-interest could drive them to alter the distribution of world power in their favour. That is why when it comes to honest brokers, people often think of middle powers such as Norway, Switzerland and Sweden.

But China stands out. Unlike Britain or France, it has no historic burden of being a coloniser. Unlike Russia, which would use force to maintain its spheres of influence, China needs no such spheres as its influence, especially in the global economy, is ubiquitous. And unlike the United States, China has shown no missionary zest to police the world through hegemony or alliance. All of China’s military operations overseas in recent decades, whether in peacekeeping, counterpiracy or disaster relief, have been invariably humanitarian in nature.

If China has waded into deeper waters in the Middle East, then in Ukraine, Beijing has tried its best to strike a balance in a war between two of its friends.

It has almost never voted against or vetoed any of the UN resolutions condemning Russia, but rather only abstained. While the US-led Nato has provided full military support to Ukraine, Beijing has provided no military aid or weapons to Moscow. True, China’s trade with Russia has helped it skirt Western sanctions, but the trade went on before the war and none of it violates international rules or regimes. Last year, Ukraine’s largest trading partner remained China, with a trade revenue of around US$12.9 billion.