Did China know Russia would invade Ukraine?
Beijing furious after reports accuse Xi’s government of asking Moscow to delay attack until after the Winter Olympics
China’s foreign policy strategy is unraveling after allegations surfaced that Beijing knew about Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine.
High-ranking officials are reported to have told Moscow in early February not to launch its illegal war against the Eastern European democracy before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The warning came around the time that President Xi Jinping was holding a fanfare summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the 2022 Games.
“A Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official,” The New York Times reported earlier this week.
In response, China has categorically denied the accusation and blamed the United States, NATO and its European Union allies for causing the “humanitarian crisis” in Ukraine.
“The claims mentioned in the relevant reports are speculations without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement.
Beijing’s foreign policy exposed:
- It is increasingly looking inconceivable that Comrade Xi’s ruling Communist Party did not know of Putin’s invasion plans.
- Since the invasion was launched, Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow.
- Instead, they have pointed the finger at the US, the EU and NATO allies.
- This double-speak fails to address China’s number one foreign policy goal that all nations should respect the ”sovereignty and territorial integrity” of other countries.
- Russia’s terror campaign in Ukraine has broken Beijing’s golden rule.
What was said: “Given the evidence we have so far, I think we can’t rule out either possibility definitely – that Xi didn’t know (which is bad) and that Xi may have known (which is also bad),” Bonny Lin, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Reuters news agency.
Alternative view: “Ukraine should have been a bridge across Eurasia, and its people should not have been the victims of Washington’s ideology and military expansionism,” China’s state-run Global Times thundered in an editorial on March 3, forgetting the fact that it was Russia, not the US, that invaded Ukraine.
Big picture: Xi is now facing a PR nightmare as images flash around the world of Ukrainian cities being bombed by the Russian military, killing innocent civilians. All this is down to his “best friend” Putin and what they described in last month’s communique as the “true democratic spirit.”
Delve deeper: “The EU has expressed unequivocal support for Ukraine becoming a member of the bloc, calling the country now under attack from Russia ‘one of us’,” Reuters news agency reported at the weekend.
China Factor comment: As Russia’s invasion continues and the civilian death toll climbs, there is growing evidence that Xi and his Party inner circle have blood on their hands. After all, they agreed to the “no limits” partnership agreement hammered out last month between the two leaders.