Biden-Xi conversation over Ukraine

It is interesting and inevitable that the virtual meeting between United States President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping was reported differently in the Western media and the Chinese. Most of the Western news media said that President Biden warned his Chinese counterpart of the consequences if China were to give aid to Russia even as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to rage. White House Press Secretary Jan Psaki said that Biden had “conveyed the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia.”

China’s People’s Daily said: “President Biden expounded on the US position, and expressed readiness for communication with China to prevent the situation from exacerbating.”

The Chinese paper quoted Xi: “China does not want to see the situation in Ukraine come to this. China stands for peace and opposes war. This is embedded in China’s history and culture.” It also said that Xi shared with Biden the six-point initiative on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and that he expressed China’s readiness to offer further humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and other effected countries. And the paper quoted Xi’s suggestion for talks: “All sides need to jointly support Russia and Ukraine in having dialogue and negotiation that will produce results and lead to peace.”  It is possible that the American version gave what Biden had spoken and the Chinese version includes what Xi has said and what the Chinese understood Biden to have said.

It appears from the American view, the strategy is to isolate Russia and to pressurise all countries, including American allies, to cut off economic relations with Russia. Though the US has imposed total economic sanctions against Russia, including oil imports, the European Union (EU) countries have imposed sanctions on all imports from Russia excepting oil and gas, and with the promise that the EU would reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas gradually. The economic war that Europe and America are waging against Russia has its problems. Nato and the US have consistently refused to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky’s request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine because that would drag in Nato into direct confrontation with Russia.

It is becoming apparent that countries like China are not willing to adopt the hostile American attitude towards Russia, and that China is suggesting that all countries in the world should encourage both Russia and Ukraine to hold talks with each other. But it is also evident that though talks between Russia and Ukraine are continuing, there is no prospect of a breakthrough. And Russia is pressing forward with its attack, and it is causing huge damage to Ukraine and its people.

It is also apparent that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not willing to call off his “special military operation” in Ukraine until he disables whatever military power that Ukraine possesses. There have been indications that Ukraine is now willing to consider the necessity of keeping out of Nato. But it is determined not to be a vassal state of Russia as were the many east European countries of Warsaw Pact during the Cold War era between the 1950s through 1980s. In the Ukraine-Russia talks, Russia must assure the sovereign, independent status of Ukraine in return for Ukraine’s assurance of military neutrality.

But this could prove to be a temporary pause until Russia and the West resolve their basic hostility towards each other in the way that China and America have done. People’s Daily said that in the Biden-Xi conversation, Biden has assured China that the “US does not seek a new cold war with China, it does not aim to change China’s system…and it has no intention to seek a conflict with China.” This China-US model should serve as an example for Russia-West relations.