Array
Ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers China an opportunity for leadership that could advance its sagging moral authority throughout the world. But the “peace plan” for Ukraine released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Feb. 24 shows that China is missing that opportunity and instead is showing itself incapable of fulfilling its responsibility to help stop the carnage— and even complicit in it.
The document asserts that sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected; hostilities should cease; civilians should be protected; and that the use of nuclear weapons should not be contemplated. These are principles that, if truly embraced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, would compel China to firmly demand an end to Russia’s invasion, a demand that almost certainly, if backed up by China’s economic power, would be met.
Russia, not Ukraine, has violated all of these principles. Russia has invaded a sovereign state, targeted, tortured, raped and kidnapped thousands of civilians, and has repeatedly threatened to escalate the conflict with the use of nuclear weapons. But China’s document suggests that both sides of the conflict are equally responsible for ending it: “All parties must exercise restraint,” it preaches. Would China “exercise restraint” if its territory were invaded, its women and children were ruthlessly killed by marauding soldiers?
Last March, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Li Yuchen said that the root of the Ukraine crisis was a “Cold War mindset” and “power politics.” China’s plan reiterates this observation, calling for an end to the “Cold War mentality.” For decades, under Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule, Russia — not Ukraine — has stoked international tensions with attempts to reassemble the Soviet Union at the expense of its former captive nations that now want to be free and independent.
