The past year or more has seen China’s position on the world stage change quite a bit. The nation’s increasingly aggressive stance toward Taiwan and the rapid expansion of its military and.
The past year or more has seen China’s position on the world stage change quite a bit. The nation’s increasingly aggressive stance toward Taiwan and the rapid expansion of its military and economic influence across the Pacific has left many western nations on edge. And, of course, China’s continued support of Russia during the invasion of Ukraine puts them at odds with all of NATO and the rest of our allies. That’s why it was rather surprising to see German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flying to Beijing this week to meet with Xi Jinping. Scholz clearly wanted to talk about renewed trade deals and economic partnerships with the Chinese, but he couldn’t avoid bringing up Ukraine and the need to end the ongoing war there. Even more surprising was Xi Jinping’s reported decision to agree with him and call for peace as well. Or did he?
We’ll get to Germany’s position in all of this in a moment, but the major question is whether or not we’re seeing a shift in China’s position regarding Ukraine.
