As it was earlier today reported how Moscow has been asking Beijing for military assistance in its invasion of Ukraine, and the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan just had a meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome, the double-faced diplomacy of Beijing on this issue should be called out.
That is indeed the topic of this week’s satire on Kinamedia by cartoonist Niklas ”@KluddNiklas” Eriksson, published here every second Monday.
Even before the Russian attack started, Beijing sided with Moscow at an early February meeting between the presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. In a joint statement the cooperation between the two countries was said to have no limits, and contracts for the export of Russian fossil fuels worth some US$117.5 billion was signed.
After the invasion that Beijing is still refusing to call an invasion, China has been deflecting as much as possible of the blame to NATO and the US. It has abstained its vote on condemning the war in the UN, and on Chinese state media and social medias the Russian propaganda is being amplified while posts showing sympathy for Ukraine och even just opposing the war is being censored.
Still, to hedge its bets, China is calling for an end to the fighting and a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, in order to appear neutral from its awkward position.
The same naivety that served Putin so well in the prelude to his Ukrainian war, is now apparently also in play with regards to China. Among others, the EU foreign policy chief has called for China to mediate in the conflict, showing a poor understanding of Beijing’s skin in the game.
To give Beijing a leading role in any such negotiations, would be yet another betrayal against the government in Kyiv.
Because make no mistake. Whereas as Xi Jinping is displaying the white dove of peace for an international audience, he is still perfectly fine with funding Putin’s war machine, and determined to help tip the scales so that Russia – in one way or another – will benefit from the horrific war it started.
This week’s cartoon can be viewed in full size via this link.
A full collection of Kludd-Niklas’ works for Kinamedia can be seen here.
