A top Chinese Foreign Ministry official said on Monday that China is “working on settlement projects” to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, allegedly designed to address “root causes” of the conflict from the perspective of the Communist Party.
China is one of Russia’s closest allies on the international stage but maintains friendly relations with Kyiv. Chinese officials have maintained for years that its stance on the war, which began with Russia’s conquest of Crimea in 2014, is “neutral,” and only officially blames the United States and NATO for allegedly triggering the invasion by emboldening threats to Moscow. China has vocally opposed the imposition of any sanctions on Russia for its belligerence but has also maintained communication with the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky and his administration officials have on multiple occasions suggested that China could help rebuild areas of Ukraine destroyed in the war.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has publicly acknowledged that China has “concerns” about the ongoing conflict and has not criticized Beijing’s continued friendly ties to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government, in turn, has refused to criticize China for its support of Moscow on the international stage.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng — a frontrunner to replace Foreign Minister Qin Gang as Chinese ambassador to Washington — said at a talk in Beijing on Monday that China was actively working on “settlement projects” to help Russia and Ukraine end hostilities.
“As for the Ukrainian problem, <…> China has taken the right action to seek to promote [Russia-Ukraine] peace talks,” the Russian news agency Tass quoted Xie as saying. “We are working on settlement projects that could address the root causes and consequences of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Tass’s reporting did not include if Xie provided any clarity regarding details of the alleged “settlement projects” in Ukraine that China is involved in. It quoted Xie instead as attacking “some” actors, without naming any, for “spreading rumors alleging that our country would use forces to turn things around, maligning China for some secret reasons.”
“Humankind can hope for sustainable development only if everybody stays on a peaceful path, while maintaining harmony in relations between nations,” Xie reportedly said.
In remarks on Friday, China’s top representative at the United Nations, Zhang Jun, commented on the situation in Ukraine without indicating that Beijing was involved in any concrete plan to end the war. Zhang focused instead on China’s typical position of blaming NATO and western Europe for Russia deciding to invade its neighbor, as reported by the Chinese state news service Xinhua.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a Pion artillery system at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, December 16, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
“The current situation in Ukraine is a result of the deep-seated security imbalance in Europe, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, told a Security Council briefing on Ukraine,” Xinhua reported, “noting that only when parties concerned overcome differences and sit down at the negotiation table, can a fundamental solution be found to end the conflict and rebuild the European security architecture.”
Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, January 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Zhang emphasized the destruction of much of the Ukrainian power grid and entire residential communities.
“Continued international humanitarian assistance is indispensable to help conflict-affected people survive the winter, he said, stressing that it is imperative now to help Ukraine repair damaged energy infrastructure as soon as possible,” Xinhua cited Zhang as saying.
Ukraine is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Chinese government’s signature global infrastructure plan. Through the BRI, China offers countries predatory loans intended to be used to pay Chinese companies to pay to build infrastructure projects that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for that country. When the countries cannot pay, China seizes the projects and the land surrounding them to pay off the loan. China has largely targeted impoverished Chinese and South Asian countries with the BRI but has had some success, including with Ukraine, in Eastern Europe.
Zelensky suggested in an interview with the South China Morning Post last year that “Chinese businesses” could help rebuild post-war Ukraine. He also said he was hoping for one-on-one talks with dictator Xi Jinping and expressed gratitude that China had not provided Russia with weapons to use in his country.
“I would like to talk directly. I had one conversation with [President] Xi Jinping that was a year ago,” Zelensky said at the time. “Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression on February 24, we have asked officially for a conversation, but we (haven’t had) any conversation with China even though I believe that would be helpful.”
“China has chosen the policy of staying away. At the moment, Ukraine is satisfied with this policy. It is better than helping the Russian Federation in any case,” Zelensky said elsewhere in a message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Prior to the South China Morning Post interview, which occurred in August, Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said his country hoped China would “play an important role” in the war.
“For decades, the Ukrainian-Chinese relations have been based on mutual respect, understanding and benefit,” Kuleba said in March, a month into the Russian “special operation.” “We share Beijing’s position on the need to find a political solution to the war against Ukraine and call on China as a global power to play an important role in this effort.”
China has kept its distance despite Kyiv’s overtures. Xi has not held any conversations with Zelensky, but most recently spoke to Putin in a video chat the last weekend of 2022 – an annual tradition between Xi and Putin. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi used the opportunity to tell Putin that China remained “objective and impartial” on the Ukraine war.
“China will continue to hold an objective and impartial position, work to build synergy in the international community and play a constructive role toward peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” Xi reportedly said.
Putin reportedly did not object to this stance and invited Xi to visit Moscow. The invitation was included in the Kremlin’s transcript of the conversation but not the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s.