Recent meetings in Beijing mark a return to the world stage but with that comes increased scrutiny
Beijing this week displaced New York and the UN as the diplomatic capital of the world, hosting two meetings that have the potential to unblock two of the deepest conflicts plaguing the globe – the nine-year-old conflict betweenFor Beijing, often described as neuralgic towards interventionist foreign policy, it marks a step into the biggest of diplomatic leagues, and a sign of the country’s return to the global stage post-Covid.
The emergence of China into the diplomatic limelight of course can be overdone. The image of the country as a blushing diplomatic wallflower died years ago. According to the Mercator Research Institute in 2017 alone Beijing was mediating in nine conflicts, a visible increase compared to only three in 2012, the year whenThe increase in Chinese mediation activities can be traced back to 2013, the year that the belt and road Initiative was launched.
After abandoning his own fruitless personal efforts to persuade Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine, Macron logically sees China as the only country left with influence on Moscow.
Yet when Xi travelled to Moscow for a three day visit last month he did nothing to challenge Putin in public. The lengthy joint statement endorsed the UN security council as the only body equipped to authorise war-related sanctions. Superficially, this narrative might seem appealing, but in reality it gives one combatant, Russia, a veto as it is a member, and leaves the other, Ukraine, on the outside.
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