China is “deeply concerned” that the conflict in Ukraine will spiral out of control, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday during the presentation of a Chinese government document on its global security initiative. The top Chinese diplomat called on the United States to stop “fanning the flame” of the war and that China “will continue to play a constructive role in the Ukrainian crisis.”
China’s new foreign minister also accused the United States of blaming the war in Ukraine on China. Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated that Washington is concerned that China is considering sending weapons to Russia, something Beijing denies.
“We urge certain countries to immediately stop fanning the flame,” Yi said during a speech, referring to the Ukraine conflict and comments that appeared to be directed at the United States. “We strongly oppose any form of hegemony, any foreign interference in China’s affairs,” he said.
The foreign minister assured that China is “ready to engage in multilateral and bilateral cooperation with all countries,” while asserting that Beijing “will uphold the consensus that ‘nuclear war should not and cannot be waged.'” China “rejects an arms race” and “encourages political solutions to burning issues,” the minister said.
During the event, a document was presented on the Global Security Initiative, a concept proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April 2022 and which has among its objectives respect for the territorial integrity of countries and non-interference in their internal affairs, although some analysts have pointed out that it is a Chinese response to the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia since the war in Ukraine began.
The initiative “supports a government structure led by the United Nations and its role in preventing wars and maintaining peace,” said Qin, adding that “security is a right of all countries, not a exclusive patent of a few”.
During his recent address at the Munich Security Conference, the Director of the Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Foreign Affairs Commission, Wang Yi, reiterated that China will continue to make “efforts” to achieve peace in Ukraine and that his country has suggested that Kyiv and Moscow “sit together at a table” to reach “a political solution” to the conflict.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, China has maintained an ambiguous position within which it has called for respect for “the territorial integrity of all countries”, including Ukraine, and attention to the “legitimate concerns of all countries”, in reference to Russia.
The head of Chinese diplomacy is expected to deliver a speech from Moscow sometime this week, one year after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where he will propose a peace plan. Some Russian media assured this Monday that the official had already arrived in the Russian capital, a point not yet confirmed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It is also unknown if he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, joined the warnings of the United States on Monday and considered that the shipment of arms from China to Russia would mean crossing a “red line”. A position shared by other European foreign ministers who attended a meeting in Brussels.
Any Chinese arms supplies to Russia would risk a possible escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one hand, and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.
Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of escalating the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons. On Sunday, during a meeting with Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Wang had already warned the United States that it “should promote a political solution to the crisis, instead of adding fuel to the fire.”
Xi has supported Putin, despite Western pressure to isolate Moscow. Sino-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sold larger volumes of oil to Asian powers, including China.
