At the end of the meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Friday March 18, Beijing is cultivating its ambiguity in the face of the war in Ukraine. For China, the origin of “Ukrainian crisis” lies in the advances made in recent years by NATO on Russia’s threshold. Westerners would therefore, according to Beijing, be responsible for Moscow’s anger.
For China, Taiwan is a bigger issue than Ukraine. On this question depends its relationship with the United States. “Mismanagement of the Taiwan issue will have a disruptive impact on the bilateral relationship,” warns the Chinese press release published at the end of the interview. A sign of the importance of this issue, two warships, an American and a Chinese, sailed in the Taiwan Strait on Friday, a few hours before the meeting. “The war in Ukraine makes an intervention in Taiwan militarily, economically and politically more complicated”, explain to World Evan Medeiros, specialist in Sino-American relations at Georgetown University in Washington.
Beijing cannot dissociate itself from Moscow, its only possible support for the Security Council in the event of an invasion of Taiwan. And, on a personal level, Xi Jinping can hardly, a few months before the Communist Party Congress, distance himself from Vladimir Putin with whom he has just concluded a “limitless strategic partnership”.
With regard to the current conflict in Ukraine, China reiterates its – lip service – attachment to international law and says it is “opposed to war”. There is no official question of any military support for Russia, mentioned insistently in Washington.
Willing to help Ukraine further on a humanitarian level, China calls for a political settlement. But Beijing is content to call on the United States and NATO to “Dialogue with Russia” to take into account the security concerns of kyiv and Moscow and “stop hostilities as soon as possible”. For China, Ukraine is only the battleground between Russia and the United States. It is therefore up to these two countries to resolve this crisis.
While the Chinese statement does not characterize Russian aggression, it expands on “serious crises” what could result from the sanctions imposed “without discernment” in terms of “trade, finance, energy, food” as well as supply chains. Another major point of divergence between China and the West.