Can China play peacemaker? That is the faint hope now being seized upon by western leaders desperate to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. “It has to be China,” said Josep Borrell, the UN foreign policy chief. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said that “China is interested in stopping this war”. On Tuesday, Xi Jinping made his strongest statement on the war yet as the French president and German chancellor met him virtually, calling for “maximum restraint” and saying that China was “pained to see the flames of war reignited…
Month: March 2022
Fiona Hill on the War Putin Is Really Fighting
ezra klein I’m Ezra Klein, and this is “The Ezra Klein Show.” [MUSIC PLAYING] If there is to be an off ramp in Ukraine, a deal, something to stop the fighting here, it’s going to need to be something that Putin, Zelensky, and the West can all agree on. And as hard as that kind of deal was to imagine a month ago, it is harder now, because — think about how all of the actors and factors here have changed. Vladimir Putin, he had a very optimistic view of…
U.N. Human Rights Chief to Visit China
GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official said on Tuesday that China would allow her to visit the country and examine conditions there, including in the Xinjiang region, a startling twist after years of negotiations and stonewalling by Beijing. If the visit goes ahead in May as expected, the official, Michelle Bachelet, will be the first United Nations high commissioner for human rights in 22 years to visit China, which has faced repeated criticism for its human rights policies. The visit is not without risk for the high…
Chinese government adviser calls for law to ban ‘fake news’
An adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion. Jia Qingguo, a member of China’s highest political advisory body, said he also believed the proliferation of misinformation online had fuelled tensions between China and foreign countries. “For example, there are often people online who, for some purpose, package a foreigner’s vicious remarks against China as the view of everyone in that country towards China in order to incite…
China’s state firms to pay US$260 billion in profits to help fund Beijing’s spending spree
China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund, and China National Tobacco Corporation, the world’s biggest cigarette maker, are among the financial institutions and monopolies that will pay surplus profits from previous years. Photo: Imaginechina South China Morning Post
Why China Can’t Bail Out Putin’s Economy
The West has, however, largely cut off Russia’s access to the world banking system, which is a very big deal. Russian exporters may be able to get their stuff out of the country, but it’s now hard for them to get paid. Probably even more important, it’s hard for Russia to pay for imports — sorry, but you can’t carry out modern international trade with briefcases full of $100 bills. In fact, even Russian trade that remains legally permitted seems to be drying up as Western companies that fear further…
The China Factor in Tech Export Controls Against Russia
Advertisement Technology export controls have taken a prominent place in the response of the United States and its allies to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. By applying the so-called Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR) to Russia, the U.S. cuts off Russian customers not only from U.S. technology but also from foreign-produced items that contain or were developed with controlled U.S.-origin technology or software. The Biden administration imposed one FDPR on Russian military end users and one Russia-wide FDPR (the latter excludes some low-technology consumer goods). U.S. allies and partners that are…
China Calls Russia Its Chief ‘Strategic Partner’ Despite War
Advertisement China’s foreign minister on Monday called Russia his country’s “most important strategic partner” as Beijing continues to refuse to condemn the invasion of Ukraine despite growing pressure from the U.S. and European Union to use its influence to rein Moscow in. Wang Yi said Chinese ties with Moscow constitute “one of the most crucial bilateral relationships in the world.” China has broken with the U.S., Europe, and others that have imposed sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Beijing has said sanctions create new issues and threaten a…
Xi and Putin’s ‘No Limits’ Bond Leaves China Few Options on Ukraine
On a frigid day in Beijing last month as the Winter Olympics were set to open, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, celebrated a diplomatic triumph with a banquet for his honored guest, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. They had just finalized a statement declaring their vision of a new international order with Moscow and Beijing at its core, untethered from American power. Over dinner, according to China’s official readout, they discussed “major hot-spot issues of mutual concern.” The details remain secret, but their talks were a crucial moment in the…
South Korea’s presidential candidates face balancing act amid rising anti-China sentiment
When Moon Jae-in, the outgoing president of South Korea, returned home from Washington in May last year, his foreign minister, Chung Eui-yong, rushed to clarify the mention of Taiwan in his joint statement with Joe Biden – a highly sensitive subject for South Korea’s biggest trading partner, China. “The Taiwan-related expressions [in the joint statement] are ‘very general expressions’,” Chung said a day after the statement was released. As if this clarification was not enough, Chung’s deputy, Choi Jong-gun, added: “China would appreciate the fact that South Korea does not…