China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, announced at the Munich Security Conference that China would soon offer a proposal to stop the fighting in Ukraine. American and European officials are sceptical
on the same day. China, which dislikes instability, probably did not welcome Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, but it has sought to make the best of the war, manoeuvring to undermine the unity of Western countries. Mr Biden’s trip, planned in secret, was designed to demonstrateIt all comes amid a flurry of Chinese diplomacy, as the one-year anniversary of the war approaches.
The stakes of that squabble seem small compared with what is on the line in Ukraine. China does not care who controls this or that oblast. Its national interests lie in discrediting American-led defence alliances and sanctions, because its rulers could one day face a comparable American response over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Mr Xi calls Mr Putin his “best friend”, and the pair share a common loathing of Western liberal democracy.
But China does not want Mr Putin to pay any price for his invasion, lest that reaffirm the rules-based order that it seeks to break. That does not sit well with European leaders. Even the more cautious among them, such as Emmanuel Macron of France and Olaf Scholz of Germany, told the conference in Munich that Mr Putin cannot walk away from his war rewarded for his aggression.
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