Context: Although Beijing has avoided direct criticism of Russia’s attack on Ukraine but Beijing’s domestic portrayal of the crisis for its own citizens is far from an enthusiastic embrace of Moscow’s actions. 

• The author of this article argues that the war in Ukraine is a failure of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy, and a big setback for China’s geopolitical ambitions. Putin has cleverly dragged Xi Jinping into a position that the Chinese president surely did not desire.
• The author has enumerated the following reasons that state why the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is not in China’s interest. And why he sees it as a failure of China’s foreign policy.

Invasion of Ukraine by Russia is not in China’s Interest

• First, China has recently acknowledged its “great importance” to the China-Ukraine strategic partnership. Recently, China declared support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• Second, China was in support of the Minsk agreements. Until the invasion, they had called for de-escalation through dialogue and negotiation.
• Third, China is Ukraine’s biggest trade partner and Kyiv had signed up to Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• Fourth, China has also long been seeking technologies like advanced aircraft engines that Ukraine controls. Russia’s invasion has shown that being a BRI member only gets you Chinese loans and infrastructure, and you can’t rely on China for survival.
• Fifth, in the recently concluded Russia-China joint statement, there was no reference to Ukraine. There was only a small reference to the complaint against NATO’s expansion.
• Sixth, China prefers a world where the US, UK, and the EU are divided and wants to attract developing countries to itself and its vision of a new global order.
• Finally, to the extent that Western sanctions affect Russia’s global trade, Chinese financial institutions and firms will be affected. China cannot afford to lose access to European technology ecosystems and markets too.

Conclusion

• Beijing has sought to straddle mutually competing – and conflicting – priorities: a strategic partnership with Russia, long-standing foreign policy principles of “territorial integrity” and “noninterference,” and a desire to limits collateral damage from Western sanctions.