‘Putin Showed Himself As Weakling In Front Of China’

The Ukrainian diplomat told what the meeting between Xi Jinping and Blinken means.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today. Charter97.org asked Ukrainian diplomat and political scientist, expert of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation Oleksandr Khara to tell how important this meeting is:

— This is the first trip to China by an American dignitary that has not been seen since 2018. Relations between the U.S. and China are not the best right now, which affects, let's say, all of us as a whole. Stopping this trajectory of deterioration in relations, their stabilization, possible improvement, will be very good for the whole world.

If we talk about Russian aggression against Ukraine, then the meeting between Blinken and Jinping can also be a positive moment, this issue has been announced and will definitely be discussed. I note that no matter what humanitarian arguments Ukraine brings to China (about international law, territorial integrity), they all do not work for the Chinese, since their interests are on a slightly different plane.

Only the possibility of worsening relations with the United States, the introduction of additional sanctions, export controls, deters China from even more assistance from the Russian Federation. Now they are buying energy carriers, selling chips, respectively, all this is unpleasant for us, but it would be worse if the cooperation was on a larger scale and they were given missiles, combat drones, ammunition, and so on.

Therefore, the improvement of relations between the United States and China will have a positive impact on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

— Can the U.S. and China agree on a joint strategy for the war in Ukraine?

— Absolutely not, since it would be beneficial for China if Ukraine lost this war at the very beginning. Then Beijing would behave in a completely different way with respect to Taiwan. It is beneficial for the PRC to keep the Russian Federation afloat, since it is now diverting large resources of Americans and allies from preparing for a possible war with China.

Indeed, over the past three or four years, China has begun to behave more aggressively in its region. Xi Jinping said that before 2027, the People's Liberation Army of China should be ready to take back Taiwan by force. For them, this is a fundamental thing, the Chinese Foreign Minister told Blinken about this. He said that “the core of our interests is Taiwan”.

In this sense, China needs Russia — an idiotic country that does the dirty work for the Chinese, destroying a system that does not satisfy them very much. It diverts large resources, primarily Americans, to itself, which gives China a reason to promote itself in the so-called global South.

Here it is worth mentioning the mission of African leaders, which was in Kyiv, and then in St. Petersburg. The President of the Republic of South Africa, before flying to Kyiv, called and consulted with Xi Jinping, so I have a suspicion that this is not a separate “African countries plan”, but China’s strategy is to generate various similar “peace plans” and push the West towards a profitable resolution of this conflict for China, which will not be beneficial to Ukraine.

Summing up, ideologically, Russia is much closer to China. At the same time, China wants the Russian Federation to be weak, and will use the Russians as useful idiots against America. It will try not to let the Russian Federation lose, but on the other hand, it will not do anything special to make the Russian Federation win.

— How will the meeting between Xi Jinping and Blinken be perceived in the Kremlin?

— Comrade Putin has already let down his senior comrade Xi Jinping several times. And when he started a shameful war after the Olympics, showing himself to be a weakling, and when the Big Five statement (countries that legally own nuclear weapons) was signed this year that nuclear weapons should not be used.

Literally after Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, Putin announced with pleasure that he would deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, and Beijing did not react at all to this. Although this absolutely goes against the so-called peace-loving line that Beijing is promoting.

Roughly speaking, they have more coincidences of strategic interests in the war with the West, in shifting the political center to the East, than with the Americans, but on the other hand, Russia is such an insignificant partner in the economic sphere compared to the United States that Putin cannot claim anything here.

Therefore, he will see the meeting as a continuation of China's strategy. Nothing much will change with regard to Russia, of course, he may not be satisfied that China did not help as much as Putin wants, but no one promised him this anyway.