Letters | How China’s neutrality on Ukraine war creates a chance for peace

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During the Cold War, many assumed that Beijing and Moscow were aligned. However, Mao Zedong was wary of the threats posed by Soviet hegemony and remained so even as China’s relations with the US improved after Nixon’s visit in 1972.

While relations have improved drastically, one should not assume an alliance exists between Beijing and Moscow. The trust between Russia and China is greatly exaggerated by the West. Russian aggression in Ukraine is a threat to Chinese strategic interests. Having suffered for over a century at the hands of colonisers and having been forced to make concessions, China finds any external meddling in a nation’s sovereignty disconcerting. More importantly, China is worried about the precedent Russia is trying to set.

Unilateral recognition of separatist movements in Ukraine is exactly what China fears will happen in Taiwan. If Russian President Vladimir Putin can swoop into Ukraine and declare the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent countries, what is to keep Washington from doing the same with Taiwan? China wants to defend the status quo, and Putin has threatened this balance.

The United States has been up in arms about China’s abstention during the Security Council vote to condemn Russia. However, China is not playing favourites. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, the world reacted in a similar fashion. France and Russia banded together and pledged to veto any resolutions proposed by the United States. Many European countries, like Germany, condemned the US, leading to deterioration in relations between the Nato powers.

However, China remained neutral and signalled its intention to abstain from Security Council votes on going to war. China issued a statement stressing the importance of sovereignty and encouraging all parties to find a diplomatic solution. The Chinese response to the Iraq war was virtually identical to its response to the Ukraine war, but no one ever claimed that China was secretly helping Washington.