On the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the CCP issued a 12-point statement to express its official position. However, its position was not only distrusted by the United States and other Western allies, but even Russia responded coldly. This short and crude statement quickly degenerates into insignificance”historical documents“In addition to once once more highlighting the fact that the CCP stands shoulder to shoulder with the aggressors, it also attracted a lot of ridicule.
On February 24, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the “China’s position on a political solution to the Ukraine crisis“Document calls on Russia and Ukraine to “cease fire, stop war and start peace talks” with 12 points, and demands “stop unilateral sanctions” for Russia.
The CCP’s statement includes respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries, abandoning the Cold War mentality, ceasefire and cessation of war, starting peace talks, resolving humanitarian crises, protecting civilians and prisoners of war, maintaining the safety of nuclear power plants, reducing strategic risks, ensuring food transportation, stopping unilateral sanctions, Ensure the stability of the supply chain and promote post-war reconstruction, etc. Roughly reaffirmed its position on the Russia-Ukraine war, but did not make any specific proposals, and seemed to deliberately vague the definition. As always, it did not condemn Russian aggression, did not propose the withdrawal of Russian troops, and did not mention ensuring the territorial and sovereign integrity of Ukraine. Instead, it emphasized that the security of Russia, the aggressor country, should be Concerned regarding, and accused the United States and Western allies of “Cold War mentality” and “unilateral sanctions.”
Russia is not interested in China’s statement
The Russian Foreign Ministry declared that it attaches great importance to “the desire of our Chinese friends to contribute to the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict through peaceful means”, but also emphasized that any solution must recognize the “new territorial status quo”, obviously not interested in the CCP’s statement.
According to Deutsche Wellereport, the Russian authorities said on February 27 that they had noticed China’s proposal to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine politically, but there is currently no prerequisite for a peaceful solution. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “at the moment we do not see any conditions for peace” and said “special military operations” would continue.
Regarding the CCP’s statement, Voice of Americapointed outU.S. President Joe Biden said in an exclusive interview with > that if China’s plan is followed, only Russia will benefit, emphasizing that “the idea that China can mediate this totally unfair war once morest Ukraine is not reasonable.”
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an exclusive interview with CNN that the war can be stopped according to the “first point” of China’s statement, which means “respect for the sovereignty of all countries.” Sullivan pointed out that “Ukraine did not attack Russia, NATO did not attack Russia, the United States did not attack Russia – this is a war that Putin chose.” Stressing that “if Russia stops attacking Ukraine and withdraws its troops, the war will be over.”
On the same day that China released the statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a keynote address to the UN Security Council on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, emphasizing that “the fact is that Putin alone started the war and he alone can end it. “And referring to China, he said that “members of the Security Council should not support Russia while calling for peace.”
In Europe, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said China’s statement was “not a peace plan” and pointed out that before the war, China declared that China and Russia “friendliness has no end and cooperation has no restricted areas.” China has already chosen a side; NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that China, which has not yet condemned Russia’s aggression, has no credibility in promoting peace talks.
The West Knows the CCP’s Hypocritical Statement
What is surprising and worthy of attention is that Germany, which has long been considered to be particularly appeasement towards the CCP, at this moment, both the government and the public and public opinion, reacted particularly fiercely to the CCP’s hypocritical mediation statement. Public opinion already has considerable distrust of the CCP.
For example, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated in his speech on the first anniversary of the Russo-Ukraine War that “China must clearly point out who is the aggressor.” It is “questionable” that China wants to play a constructive role in justice and peace. We should “join the vast majority of countries and work for peace under the framework of the United Nations.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accused China of never condemning Russia so far in an exclusive interview with German public television “ZDF”. “There should be no illusions” regarding mediation. In the past, both Steinmeier and Shots have been criticized many times for being too appeasement towards Russia and China.
The German public opinion circles were even more vocal regarding the CCP’s statement. “Deutsche Welle” on February 25paraphrase“Der Spiegel” (Der Spiegel) criticized Beijing’s statement under the headline “Beijing’s useless plan” as not a peace plan, but an endorsement of Russia, which is a “terrific PR prank”; “Daily Mirror” ( Der Tagesspiegel pointed out that this document is a diplomatic tool used by Chinese leaders to pursue their own interests.
On February 27, Deutsche Welle reportedparaphrase“Die Welt” (Die Welt) pointed out that this statement was only used to please Putin. Just from the title of the statement, it can be seen that Xi Jinping does not care regarding peace in Ukraine. “China is clearly on the side of the aggressor”; Süddeutsche Zeitung (Süddeutsche Zeitung) mentioned that the CCP’s statement is very vague, but its criticisms of the United States and Western countries are very specific and clear.
The CCP’s so-called peaceful statement was criticized by Europe and the United States as an absolver of Putin’s responsibility. Russia stated that any solution should recognize its control over Ukraine, and it has no interest in the CCP’s statement. This incident once once more demonstrates the fact that the CCP and the aggressor Russia have joined forces side by side, and its hypocritical statement has no real help in peacefully resolving the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
