Unprecedented for the country during the war

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has wrapped up a three-day state visit to Moscow that marked China’s solidarity with Russia at a time when most of the world condemned Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

While Xi Jinping was preparing to leave on Wednesday, March 22, the Russian army carried out another bombardment of Ukraine, targeting in particular a hostel in the city of Rzhyshchiv in the Kyiv region, as a result of which at least 4 people were killed and many more were injured.

“Take care, dear friend, please,” Xi Jinping said in farewell to the Russian president in the morning of the same day, Reuters reports.

One of the leading topics of the talks in Moscow was what both sides called “the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.”

Meanwhile, the USA and Europe are increasingly declaring that China, while proclaiming its neutrality, actually supports Putin’s claims, which became the justification for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Xi Jinping, speaking publicly in Moscow during his three-day visit, did not take the opportunity to note that Russia has attacked a sovereign country and is trying to change borders by force, although Beijing often claims to respect the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.

The US and European representatives have repeatedly called on China to use its influence on Russia to push for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Instead, in a joint Sino-Russian statement regarding the “Ukrainian issue”, Moscow and Beijing emphasized the commonality of views several times.

That document contains dissatisfaction with the sanctions, but does not mention the need to stop hostilities by Russian troops on Ukrainian territory, although it mentions the need to “fulfill the UN charter and international laws.”

At a press conference with Xi Jinping on March 21, President Putin said that “many provisions of the Chinese peace plan (released on the anniversary of the February Russian invasion of Ukraine) can be used as a basis for resolving the conflict in Ukraine,” but he accused Western countries and Ukraine of being “unprepared.” .

Broader Chinese interests

The AP agency sums up and writes that “Xi Jinping’s visit politically strengthened Russian President Vladimir Putin just a few days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader on charges of his suspected involvement in the abduction of thousands of children from Ukraine.”

An employee of the Carnegie Endowment think tank, Alexander Gabuev, expresses the opinion that the issues of the Russian war in Ukraine were actually, as he told the American newspaper New York Times, only a “fig leaf” covering the growing influence of China in Beijing’s relations with Moscow.

Pointing to the published list of signed Russian-Chinese documents, he notes in Twitter, that “the real content of the negotiations and the agreements reached may be in the underwater part of the iceberg. Beijing has every reason to take its time with the announcement and focus public attention on the Ukrainian-Russian peace initiative.”

“The impression that Russia is a junior partner deep in China’s pocket and with no other options than China is very useful if China considers itself in a state of long-term confrontation with the United States,” Alexandra Gabuyeva is quoted by the New York Times.

British correspondent in Moscow Steve Rosenberg also notes that Russia and China are now “not equal partners”, because “Russia, under pressure due to its war in Ukraine, depends on China more and more”.

“The Chinese peace initiative towards Ukraine has made little progress. President Putin blamed Kyiv and the West. But he started this war. And he gave no sign that he was ready to withdraw his troops. And the question of whether China can supply weapons to Russia was left unanswered,” the British journalist emphasized.

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