China’s Tardy Bid To Mediate in Russia’s War on Ukraine Draws Skepticism

President Zelensky said he and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, had a “long and meaningful” phone call Wednesday, their first known contact since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, and Beijing has appointed an envoy to pursue a “political settlement.”The hour-long call came two months after Beijing, which has long been aligned with Russia, said it wanted to act as a mediator and a month after Mr. Xi visited Moscow. The call also coincided with indications that Ukraine is readying its forces for a spring counteroffensive.Even though Beijing’s proposals for mediation are thin on substance, Mr. Zelensky was upbeat about the conversation. It offered him the chance to insert his views into what had been a bilateral dialogue between Moscow and Beijing. President Putin is eager to keep Mr. Xi close as a counterweight to America, which has sided with Ukraine.“I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations,” Mr. Zelensky said on Facebook.An official readout on his website called the conversation “productive” and said it leads the way toward “possible interaction with the aim of establishing a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine.”Mr. Zelensky emphasized the need to regain all Ukrainian lands and stated, “There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises.” In an indirect reference to reports that China had considered supplying weapons to Russia for its war, Mr. Zelensky’s office said he asked countries to refrain from doing so because “any support — even partial — is converted by Russia into the continuation of its aggression, into its further rejection of peace.” China has said it won’t supply weapons to either side in the conflict. The Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing’s “core stance is to facilitate talks for peace,” announcing that an envoy — a former ambassador to Russia — would visit Ukraine to seek a “political settlement.”The ministry’s statement struck a positive tone, giving a nod to Kyiv’s insistence that its territory cannot be broken up by Russia’s annexations and making clear that Beijing values its longstanding ties with Ukraine.“Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political foundation of China-Ukraine relations,” the statement said. “China’s readiness to develop relations with Ukraine is consistent and clear-cut. No matter how the international situation evolves, China will work with Ukraine to advance mutually beneficial cooperation.”Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that Mr. Xi said China “is neither the creator nor a party to the Ukraine crisis.” The Chinese leader is said to have told Mr. Zelensky, “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible great power, we would not watch idly by, we would not add fuel to the fire, and above all we would not profiteer from this.”Yet the call comes soon after Beijing did add fuel to the fire, in the form of remarks that the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, made to a French television station. He questioned the legitimacy of the Baltic countries and cast doubt on Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea, which Russia has illegally annexed. Analysts expressed skepticism about the prospects for peace coming down the pike from Communist China. The call balances China’s dialogue with Russia by showing it is “recognizing Ukraine’s leadership and indicating Ukraine is an important entity,” a political science professor, Kimberly Marten of Barnard College at Columbia University, said. She added in an interview with the Associated Press that unless undisclosed details show otherwise, “it’s a non-starter. It’s pro-Russian. I would not guess that this holds a lot of significance for ending the war.”She noted the Chinese statement didn’t call for Russia to leave occupied areas or brand Russia as an aggressor, and refers to the situation as “a crisis, rather than a war.”Elizabeth Wishnick, of the U.S.-based think tank CNA and Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, noted in an email to AP that the Chinese statement about the call contains “no mention of a Russian troop withdrawal, which, to my mind, makes this a less than serious initiative and unlikely to contribute in any major way to ending the war, which will likely be decided on the battlefield.”At Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, commended China’s approach, praising Beijing’s “readiness to strive to establish a negotiations process,” while slamming Kyiv’s “rejection of any sound initiatives aimed at a settlement.”The White House described it as a positive development, allowing Mr. Xi to hear Ukraine’s view of the “illegal, unprovoked invasion.”“We think that’s a good thing,” the White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, said.Talks between the two leaders had been anticipated for weeks, after China produced a 12-point proposal to end the fighting.Russia and Ukraine are far apart in their terms for peace. The Kremlin wants Kyiv to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, which most nations have denounced as illegal. Ukraine has rejected the demands and ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories.Until this call, Mr. Zelensky hadn’t spoken with Mr. Xi since the war began.

China’s Tardy Bid To Mediate in Russia’s War on Ukraine Draws Skepticism

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