Three Ways China Presaged Its Stance on Ukraine
Increasing hostility to the liberal international order was signposted over a decade in a document, a parade, and the clampdown in Hong Kong.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. At left is South Korea’s then-president, Park Geun-hye.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty
China’s refusal to condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused consternation in Europe and threatens to sour relations with one of its biggest trading partners. Even as Beijing portrays itself as a neutral party and potential mediator, the government has declined to join U.S. sanctions against Russia and continues to blame Washington for the conflict. Western leaders should not have been shocked. China’s rapprochement with Russia goes back years, long before the “no limits” partnership proclaimed by President Xi Jinping and Putin on the eve of last month’s Winter Olympics.
It forms part of a wider strategic shift that reflects Beijing’s changing perception of its participation in the rules-based global order, from a mutually beneficial arrangement that helped enable rapid economic development to a U.S.-dominated mechanism dedicated to containing China’s rise. This seismic turn, largely since Xi became president in 2013, has not been hidden. Several symbolic moments stand out in signaling China’s growing hostility to the values of liberal democracy, and determination to fashion a global system more favorable to the interests of autocracies. These are three examples: