China hammers home its message of US blame for Ukraine war to domestic audience
- State media publishes multiple commentaries accusing Washington’s Nato ambitions of sparking the conflict
- Observers noted the difference between Beijing’s domestic rhetoric and its international response to the Ukraine crisis
“Nato has become a tool for the United States to practice its hegemony,” the commentary said. “The US-led Nato has for a long time created turbulence around Russia, including starting ‘colour revolutions’.”
The article, which accused the US of “directing and acting” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was the first in a series planned by the newspaper to focus on blaming Washington for the war in Ukraine.
It appeared one day after the military newspaper PLA Daily published the last of its six-part series on the “despicable role by the United States and the West in the Ukrainian crisis”.
The final instalment focused on the unproven claims that the Pentagon was developing biochemical weapons in Ukraine and also returned to China’s own coronavirus lab leak theory – that the pandemic may have originated in the US.
For more than a year, Chinese state media and diplomats have argued the virus may have originated from the Fort Detrick Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, to counter the hypothesis that it may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre think tank, said Beijing’s Ukraine messaging was mainly for its domestic audience, “and also to stress that China’s siding with Russia is just”.
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“China differentiates between rhetoric, which is pro-Russia, and diplomacy, which is more balanced, and real actions, which are lacking on supporting Russia. In this case, I think the pro-Russia rhetoric is a part of the policy.”
Sun added that China’s pushing of the Ukraine bioweapons claim was an extension of the controversy surrounding the origin of Covid-19. “The lab theory just plays into China’s narrative about Covid originating from US labs. Of course China won’t miss the opportunity,” she said.
While China has called for a diplomatic solution in Ukraine, it has refused to condemn the actions of its close ally, fuelling concerns Beijing could help Moscow evade sanctions and give it military support.
Beijing has also resisted pressure to use its leverage with Moscow to help end the war.
A day after the talks, China’s foreign vice-minister Le Yucheng spoke of four “hard lessons” from the crisis – all accusing Washington and Nato of seeking “absolute security” and “weaponising small countries”.
