BEIJING — China called on Thursday for talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis and avoided criticising President Vladimir Putin’s attack while, in a step that could blunt the impact of Western sanctions, Beijing also approved imports of Russian wheat, according to AP.
Chinese ties with Russia have grown stronger under President Xi Jinping, who met Putin this month in Beijing. China’s multibillion-dollar purchases of Russian gas for its energy-hungry economy have been a lifeline to Putin, who already was under Western sanctions over its 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
China is the only major government to refrain from condemning Putin’s attack. But it tempered that by calling for restraint and respect for national sovereignty.
“We still hope that the parties concerned will not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalating,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying.
Meanwhile, China’s Embassy in Ukraine told its citizens there to stay home and to place a Chinese flag inside or on their vehicle if they needed to travel.
Xi’s government echoes Russian frustration with what they say is unfair American dominance of global affairs and Moscow’s rejection of the eastward expansion of NATO, the US-European military alliance.
Beijing has blamed Washington and its European allies for the conflict over Ukraine.
“All parties should work for peace instead of escalating the tension or hyping up the possibility of war,” Hua said. “Those parties who were busy condemning others, what have they done? Have they persuaded others?”
After their Beijing meeting, Xi and Putin issued a statement endorsing key foreign policy issues for both sides — Moscow’s opposition to a NATO expansion in former Soviet republics and China’s claim to the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
Moscow’s attack has thrust Beijing into a conflict between its partnership with Putin and its sensitivity about respect for national borders due to its anxiety about holding onto restive areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang.
Li Xin, director of the Institute of European and Asian Studies at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the West forced Russia to take action with NATO’s expansion and the deployment of a missile defense system.
“On the one hand, we respect territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine, but on the other hand, we must consider the historical process of the situation where Russia has been pushed into a corner and forced to counterattack,” Li said.
China hasn’t endorsed Putin’s recognition of independence of eastern Ukraine’s separatist areas or his decision to send in soldiers, but Hua said Beijing “called on parties to respect others’ legitimate security concerns.”
Hua did not describe Russia’s actions as an invasion or directly refer to the movement of Russian forces into Ukraine.
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