China Taunts Biden: ‘He Has No Faith in Ukraine’

China’s state-run Global Times propaganda newspaper accused leftist American President Joe Biden on Thursday of a “lack of confidence” in Ukraine’s ability to defeat the two-year-old Russian invasion of its homeland, condemning him for skipping a global “peace summit” organized by Ukraine in Switzerland.

“He has no faith in Ukraine winning against Russia,” the Global Times assessed.

The United States is participating in the peace summit through the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Chinese Communist Party chose not to attend at all, complaining that the Russian government would not be present. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called China’s absence “unfortunate” in remarks last week, insinuating that China’s close allies in Moscow pressured the communists to abstain from attending.

Zelensky had expressed hope that Biden would attend the summit but has not similarly condemned Washington and appeared friendly with Biden during a meeting on Friday morning.

The Global Times condemned Biden in an article criticizing a commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, in 1944. The Chinese outlet claimed that Biden’s presence and speech at the event had tainted the solemnity of the occasion by injecting a “bellicose” tone to the affair.

“At a time meant for reflecting on the hard-won peace, US bellicose genes have been reactivated,” the outlet complained. “As it is coded in Washington’s DNA – whenever it feels challenged, the US tends to resort to war and military means to solve problems, even if the current limited peace and stability is being eroded.”

The main gripe the Global Times presented was not against Biden, but against an article in Foreign Affairs magazines. The Chinese Communist Party allows no recognizable form of freedom of expression within its borders and imprisons its citizens who attempt to practice journalism outside of closely regulated state propaganda outlets. The Times complained that the article in question posed the possibility that American allies would be at war in three regions: Ukraine, the Middle East, and Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

In Ukraine, the Global Times claimed, Biden had already lost interest,

“Remember as early as October last year, the White House warned that the US only has enough money to meet Ukraine’s ‘urgent battlefield needs’ in the short term, and the Pentagon warned Congress it is running low on money which could harm US military’s readiness,” the Times noted.

“Not to mention Biden’s decision to attend the D-Day ceremony in France while skipping the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland,” it continued, “which clearly shows his lack of confidence in Ukraine. He has no faith in Ukraine winning against Russia, nor in achieving any fruitful results from the peace summit.”

US President Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden at the 80th D-Day anniversary international commemoration on Omaha beach in Normandy, France, on Thursday, June 6, 2024 (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg).

The Global Times concluded by declaring the United States a “global threat.”

Zelensky had overtly called for Biden’s presence at the global peace summit prior to his declining the invitation.

“I believe that the peace summit needs President Biden,” Zelensky said in May. “His absence would only be met by an applause by Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin.”

Biden is sending Harris and National Security adviser Jake Sullivan and will be attending a ritzy fundraiser for his presidential campaign hosted by Hollywood A-lister George Clooney instead of the global peace summit.

George Clooney (Duncan McGlynn/Getty Images)

Despite his absence, Biden and Zelensky appeared to get along publicly during a meeting on Friday before Biden’s departure to meet with Clooney. Biden publicly apologized to Zelensky for congressional delays in funding the Ukraine war – blaming “very conservative members who were holding it up” – but did not apologize for missing the peace summit, nor did Zelensky bring it up, according to a White House transcript of the meeting.

“I apologize for the — those weeks of not knowing what was going to pan — in terms of funding,” Biden said, “because we had trouble getting the — a bill that we had to pass that had the money in it — from some of our very conservative members who were holding it up.  But we got it done, finally.”

Biden announced another $225 million in funding to Ukraine during the meeting on Friday.

While Zelensky had expressed hope of Biden attending the summit, his response to China skipping the event altogether was much harsher.

“It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin,” Zelensky said while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference, in Singapore on June 1. Zelensky claimed that Russia intervened to block China’s participation in an attempt to “disrupt” the event.

Zelensky’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba went further, suggesting China was playing both sides of the war to align itself with the victor in comments on Tuesday. While China is a high-profile Russian ally, it is also Ukraine’s top trade partner and signed Kyiv up for its predatory “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI).

“China is in no rush” to take a side in the war “for one simple reason – it is critical for them to see how the war between Russia and Ukraine ends,” Kuleba said.

“Because if it ends with Ukraine’s victory, China’s further actions will be constrained. But if this war ends not even with Russia’s victory, but with them imposing their strategic initiative,” he explained, “that is, when they will be encroaching little by little for years, and we will be fighting back little by little despite all the assistance we receive, then, on the contrary, it will free China’s hands.”