Beijing plays the victim while backing Putin’s war
President Xi ramps up state-media propaganda push to paint China as a “peace-loving” country
China’s President Xi Jinping has helped prop up fellow autocrat Vladimir Putin and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Not that you would know, judging by the propaganda push in the Chinese Communist Party’s state-controlled media.
Trying to play the role of an innocent and concerned bystander, Beijing turns the truth into a lie and a lie into truth. The word “war” is not mentioned in an editorial published this week by China Daily, the Party’s English-language mouthpiece.
Instead, the “Ukraine crisis” is preferred in an official breakdown of the agonizing anniversary of 1,000 days of conflict. There was no reference to Xi’s “dear friend” Putin or Beijing’s “no limits” partnership as missiles rained down on the Eastern European nation.
But there were accusations, parroting the Party line in an editorial entitled NATO’s aggression behind the pro-peace veneer. It reeked of victimhood:
China has increasingly become a scapegoat for some in the West to cover up their failure to resolve the Ukraine crisis, if not an excuse for them to advance certain parties’ geopolitical schemes.
“NATO and the European Union are ramping up efforts to pressure China to stop its ‘assistance’ to Russia, and help get [North Korea] to stop its support to Russia for its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine,” China Daily’s editorial stressed.
Facts, not fiction:
- China exports over US$300 million worth of dual-use products necessary for Russia’s weapons production, according to Nathaniel Sher at Carnegie China, citing monthly data.
- “For North Korea, China has been its most important ally, providing trade, diplomatic and military aid to leader Kim Jong Un,” Business Insider reported last month.
Western forces trying to smear China … should stop their scapegoating.
China Daily Editorial
Delve deeper: There are around 11,000 North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine forces. Kim’s regime has also shipped artillery, shells, and missiles to Moscow in exchange for advanced technology for its nuclear weapons program.
Bottom line: “China bears particular responsibility here. Beijing cannot pretend to promote peace while turning a blind eye to increasing aggression,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wrote in a commentary earlier this month.
Big picture: The European Union and NATO have every right to pressure China, which sees the war in Ukraine as a way to destabilize both organizations. Divide and rule has always been the Chinese Communist Party’s mantra.
View from Beijing: “Western forces trying to smear China … should stop their scapegoating tricks and send a strong message for an early cease-fire and a political settlement with China and other peace-loving nations,” the China Daily editorial gushed.
China Factor comment: Propaganda can not blur the fact that Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Xi probably knew this was about to happen when he met Putin before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, just weeks before Russian tanks rolled across the border.