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Chinese state propaganda outlets pilloried leftist President Joe Biden for making a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, describing his in-person meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky as “irrational and selfish.”
Zelensky, who endured an acrimonious relationship with Biden prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country last year, had been urging Biden to visit Ukraine for over a year with no success. Biden planned a visit to nearby Poland this week, marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian “special operation,” but arrived in Ukraine first.
In Kyiv, Biden announced another $500 million aid package to the Ukrainian war effort; he arrived in Poland on Tuesday.
The Chinese Communist Party is one of Russia’s closest allies on the international stage but has abstained from a full-throated defense of the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine enjoys friendly ties with Beijing and is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure plan in which China offers predatory loans to poor countries to be used to pay Chinese companies to build roads, ports, and railways, among other projects. Zelensky has expressed interest in having China help rebuild Ukraine after the war.
The Global Times, a Chinese state-run propaganda newspaper, predicted on Monday that Biden’s presence in Ukraine would invite “a more aggressive counterstrike from Russia” against the country.
“[O]bservers called the trip ‘irrational and selfish,’ while disregarding that the visit may trigger a more aggressive counterstrike from Russia,” the newspaper asserted, citing Chinese government-approved “experts.”
“Experts said the dangerous signals sent from this trip will escalate the conflict,” the outlet continued. “Apparently, Biden is pushing Ukraine to act as a pawn to defeat Russia, but the goal is dangerous and irrational.”
While warning of greater Russian belligerence, the Chinese newspaper dismissed the aid that Biden announced to the Ukrainian armed forces as not “a game-changer.”
Hu Xijin, the former top editor of the Global Times demoted after the newspaper’s poor cover-up of the disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai, directly accused Biden’s visit of causing more deaths.
