China will face pressure when Ukraine’s allies visit, analysts say
- Pedro Sánchez, Emmanuel Macron and other leaders expected to push Beijing to convince Moscow to withdraw troops
- But it’s seen as unlikely to budge from its 12-point proposal that says talks are the only way towards peace
03:41
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Ding Yifan, a senior fellow with the Taihe Institute in Beijing, said there was unlikely to be much agreement between Chinese and Western officials when they meet in China.
“The leaders will ask China not to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and China will say that it is promoting peace and encouraging talks,” said Ding, previously an analyst with the Development Research Centre under the State Council.
China is set to host Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez next week on a state visit. Félix Bolaños, minister for the presidency, confirmed the plan in an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Wednesday and said China had a key role to play as a mediator in the Ukraine war.
Sanchez’s trip has not been confirmed by China. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Thursday that he had no information to release about the trip and that the two sides “maintained good communication”.
In July, Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the other legislative body of the EU besides the European Parliament.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also said he would visit China in early April and has urged Beijing to pressure Russia to end the war. He said China’s efforts were positive but peace was only possible if “Russian aggression was halted”.
Xi and Putin’s joint statement on Tuesday said the solution to the Ukraine war must account for the “reasonable security concerns” of all countries.
Russia and China have endorsed the concept of “indivisible security”, meaning that the security of a state cannot be isolated from that of others in the region. Moscow sees Nato’s expansion eastwards after the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a security threat.
China has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since it began in February 2022 and during Xi’s state visit this week the two sides expanded bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas, from commerce to energy.
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang urged the United States to “judge China’s efforts towards peace and dialogue objectively” and not to add fuel to the fire. He also criticised the US for providing military support to Ukraine.
Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said China was serious about achieving a breakthrough with its peace plan, though it remained unclear whether that would be possible.
He said China would also seize the momentum in diplomacy. “The point would be for him to be seen as a kind of a peace broker here,” he said of Xi.
The Chinese leader reportedly also plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone, but the call has not been confirmed.
03:20
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Wang Yiwei, a European affairs specialist at Renmin University of China, said he expected Macron and other European leaders to discuss the Ukraine war with Xi when they visited China.
“Ukraine did not reject China’s peace proposal. It still feels positive about it,” he added.
Additional reporting by Kawala Xie
