Beijing Needs Help With Its Russian Lessons
China has doubled down on its rhetorical support for Moscow in the face of a growing list of atrocities. Only Western unity over thorny questions like oil and gas exports will send the message Beijing needs to hear.
Turning a blind eye.
Photographer: Dursun Aydemir/BloombergThe atrocities of Bucha and other towns around Kyiv have not moved China’s President Xi Jinping. In the past few days, Beijing has instead doubled down on pro-Russian talking points in its diplomatic rhetoric and official propaganda, referring to provocation and brushing aside evidence of massacred civilians, rape and torture. All the while, of course, expressing a desire for peace.
It’s an uncomfortable reminder that there is virtually no development on the ground that will change minds in Zhongnanhai. Certainly not ahead of a party congress this fall that should see Xi installed for a precedent-breaking third term. Covid lockdowns are already making this a more turbulent year than the Communist Party might have hoped. A volte-face on Ukraine would be implicit acknowledgment that — just maybe — tethering China to an aging autocrat bent on destruction was a bad idea. This would tarnish the image of Xi as visionary statesman leading his country back to greatness.