By Joe McDonald, BEIJING China
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible “political settlement” to Russia’s war with the country.
Beijing has previously avoided
involvement in conflicts between other countries but appears to be trying to
assert itself as a global diplomatic force after arranging talks
between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March that led them to restore
diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.
Xi told Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that a Chinese envoy, a former Chinese
ambassador to Russia, would visit Ukraine and “other countries” to discuss a
possible political settlement, according to a government statement.
It made no mention of Russia
or last year’s invasion of Ukraine and didn’t indicate whether the Chinese
envoy might visit Moscow.
The Xi-Zelenskyy phone call
was long anticipated after Beijing said it wanted to serve as a mediator in the
war.
China is the only major
government that has friendly
relations with Moscow as well as economic leverage as the biggest
buyer of Russian oil and gas after the United States and its allies cut off
most purchases.
Beijing, which sees Moscow as
a diplomatic partner in opposing U.S. domination of global affairs, has refused
to criticize the invasion and used its status as one of five permanent U.N.
Security Council members to deflect diplomatic attacks on Russia.
Zelenskyy earlier said he
welcomed a Chinese offer to mediate.
Xi’s government has pursued a
bigger role in global diplomacy as part of a campaign to restore China to what
the ruling Communist Party sees as its rightful status as a political and
economic leader and to build an international order that favors Beijing’s
interests.
That is a sharp reversal after
decades of avoiding involvement in other countries’ conflicts and most
international affairs while it focused on economic development at home.
In March, Saudi Arabia and
Iran issued a surprise announcement, following talks in Beijing, that they
would reopen embassies in each other’s capitals following a seven-year break.
China has good relations with both as a big oil buyer.
Last week, Foreign Minister
Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is
ready to help facilitate peace talks.
Wednesday’s statement warned
against the dangers of nuclear war, suggesting Beijing might also have been
motivated by what it sees as the growing danger of a more destructive conflict.
Mediating between Ukraine and
Russia would increase China’s presence in Eastern Europe, where Beijing has
tried to build ties with other governments. That has prompted complaints by
some European officials that China is trying to gain leverage over the European
Union.
Political science professor
Kimberly Marten of Barnard College at Columbia University in New York doubted
China would succeed in a peacemaker role.
“I have a hard time believing
that China can act as peacemaker,” she said, adding that Beijing has been “too
close to Russia.”
China is the closest thing
President Vladimir Putin’s isolated government has to a major ally.
Xi and Putin issued a joint
statement ahead of the February 2022 invasion that said their governments had a
“no limits friendship.”
Beijing has tried to appear
neutral but has repeated Russian justifications for the invasion.
Xi received a warm welcome
from Putin during a visit to Moscow in March. The Chinese defense minister
visited Russia this month.
China has stepped up purchases
of Russian oil and gas for its energy-hungry economy, helping to offset lost
revenue resulting from Western sanctions. In exchange, China gets lower prices,
though details haven’t been disclosed.
Marten said the Xi-Zelenskyy
call was “kind of a slap at Russia, because Russia has been very keen to
portray China as its ally.” She said the direct China-Ukraine contact “indicates
China is taking at least a step away from Russia.”
China was Ukraine’s biggest
trading partner before the invasion, though on a smaller scale than
Chinese-Russian trade.
In 2021, Ukraine announced
plans for Chinese companies to build trade-related infrastructure.
Zelenskyy’s government was
more ambivalent toward Beijing after it was clear Xi wouldn’t try to stop
Putin’s war, but the two sides have remained amicable.
“Before the full-scale Russian
invasion, China was Ukraine’s number one trading partner. I believe that our
conversation today will give a powerful impetus to the return, preservation and
development of this dynamic at all levels,” an official Ukrainian readout of
the call reported.
Qin, the foreign minister,
promised this month China wouldn’t provide arms to either side, a pledge that
benefits Ukraine, which has received tanks, rockets and other armaments from
the United States and European governments.
The Chinese ambassador to
France set off an uproar in Europe when he suggested former Soviet republics —
a group that includes Ukraine — might not be sovereign nations. That was in
line with Putin’s comments denying Ukrainian sovereignty.
Beijing then reassured former
Soviet states it respected their sovereignty and said the ambassador’s comments
were a personal opinion, not official policy.
Elizabeth Wishnick, of the U.S.-based think tank CNA and Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, said in an email: “I wonder if Xi’s call was set up quickly to deflect attention” from the uproar over the Chinese ambassador’s remarks.
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