My Take | US pressure on China will not stop Putin
- Beijing has neither the power nor incentive to stop the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Its best option is to stay neutral without adding fuel to the fire like the West does by supplying arms and encouraging partisan warfare that will surely turn the country into another Syria
Those of us old enough may remember how the dynamic diplomatic duo of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger tried to apply pressure on Moscow and Beijing to force communist North Vietnam to relent in the South.
The American pair never understood the North Vietnamese weren’t just communists, but first and foremost, nationalists. Their objective was less about spreading communism across the country than unifying it. That was the existential principle for which all sacrifices must be borne. It was absurd to think the Chinese and Soviets could force the Vietnamese to compromise when they were ready to lay down their lives.
Putin is rational
When it comes to China and the war in Ukraine, Americans of far lesser diplomatic calibre are today repeating the same mistake based on similarly flawed and false assumptions. These days, major Western news outlets are publishing daily stories and opinion pieces about how China must fall in line with the West – which is either to further isolate Moscow or talk some sense into Vladimir Putin.
Here’s a statement from the bipartisan Task Force on US-China Policy, which is fairly typical of such thinking in the United States. “Vigorous diplomacy” to press China to help stop Russia’s invasion is needed, it says.
“This approach will keep pushing China to consider its own national interests, the costs it is prepared to bear, and how flexibly its leaders can adjust course to reduce the political consequences, economic burdens and social ignominy of having Russia as its primary partner just as China seeks to take its place as a responsible great power on the world stage.”