(OPINION) China has given “tacit approval” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, in the judgment of U.S. officials, as part of a joint effort to undermine the institutions that American and allied leaders established to minimize conflict in the decades following World War II.
“Russia and the PRC also want a world order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “But this is an order that is and would be profoundly illiberal. … It is an order that is, in many ways, destructive rather than additive.”
China and Russia have made a show of their alignment over the last several years, culminating in the release this month of a communique that outlined a wide range of plans for economic and diplomatic cooperation — including the Kremlin’s support for Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over the island democracy of Taiwan and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s support for restrictions on NATO activities in Europe.
Price declined to draw an explicit inference from that statement that China supports Russia in the brewing war, though his Defense Department counterpart didn’t shy from voicing an ominous conclusion. “The Feb. 4 statement that Xi and Putin put out was — certainly, we took [it] as tacit approval for what Mr. Putin is doing,”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Chinese officials have sent mixed signals about the crisis in recent days. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi mentioned Ukraine by name last week when he affirmed that “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected and safeguarded” from assault.
“And that applies equally to Ukraine,” he told the Munich Security Conference. “If anyone questions China’s attitude on this matter, it is ill-intended sensationalization and a distortion of China’s position.” READ MORE
