Xi Jinping had a long telephone conversation with Volodimir Zelensky. This is the first since the start of the war and it is a gesture long awaited by the international community, which is trying to determine how far Beijing is willing to go to make credible the twelve-point peace plan it presented in March.
The mere fact that the Ukrainian and Chinese presidents have not spoken since January 2022 indicates the distance that separates both countries. It is also eloquent that the conversation took place at the request of Kyiv, and that the Chinese side took months to accept it.
Xi is indeed a man who flaunts his friendship with Vladimir Putin. He has been seen on several occasions with the Russian president, the last one just a month ago. He was the only president who knew more or less approximately the day of the invasion of Ukraine (Putin visited Beijing during the Winter Olympics, at the beginning of February 2022).
There are therefore reasons to be skeptical of Beijing’s position. China’s peace plan on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is vague. He talks about preserving the countries’ territorial integrity (China has never recognized Russia’s annexation of the four occupied Ukrainian provinces). But it says nothing about the starting point of eventual negotiations. In particular, what should the Russian army do to start talking about. Whether to stay there or withdraw.
However, today’s conversation is yet another sign of Xi Jinping’s interest in becoming a credible leader. Of the efforts made by the Chinese presidency to speak like a great power. It is known that the Chinese power apparatus sympathizes with Moscow. Its internal propaganda is openly pro-Russia. Just a few days ago, the Chinese ambassador in Paris stated that the countries that made up the former Soviet Union (Ukraine, but also the Baltic countries) were not sovereign. It took Beijing three days to disavow him, a reflection of the old tics that inhabit the Chinese Communist Party. There have also been numerous advisers who have urged Xi not to have this conversation.
But in the end it has taken place… And it is what corresponds to a power like China, surely the only one that today has the capacity to convince Putin to stop the war.
The conversation has taken place and has been long and significant, according to Kyiv. Beijing has promised to send a high representation to Ukraine to discuss the contents of a possible agreement. Progress has also been made to normalize diplomatic relations (ambassadors have been appointed by both parties) that had been paralyzed when the Russian occupation began. Ukraine was until that month of February 2022 one of the first exporters of grain and iron ore to China.
Also significant is the hostile Russian reaction to the conversation. Probably aware of the content, of Zelenski’s approaches, he has accused the Ukrainian presidency of boycotting any attempt to negotiate peace (on terms, obviously, that are favorable to Russia, very similar to a capitulation by Kyiv).
The call comes the day Brazilian President Lula da Silva, a representative of a middle power that promotes the creation of a “peace club,” visited Madrid.
The initiative, which irritates Washington, is also based on an unequal relationship between the parties. Celso Amorim, a former Brazilian foreign minister and Lula’s special adviser on important issues, has traveled first to Moscow rather than Kyiv to sell his project. But this is the world we inhabit, the world of the end of US unipolar hegemony, where countries try to adapt to the new rules. Lula has already softened his previous statements about European responsibility in relation to the war. Similarly, Xi has ended up agreeing to speak with Zelenski. China is getting older and looking to become a credible power.
