On May 26, the media and bloggers, especially Russian and Ukrainian, began to spread the sensation with wild eyes: they say that the Chinese special envoy for the Eurasian region, Li Hui (photo), proposed a ceasefire immediate fire in Ukraine based on status quo, with Russia retaining all “occupied territories”. The news, indeed, would be a “bombshell” – if a Chinese diplomat said something like that in reality, and not someone’s fantasies.
The problem is that the main source was not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China or some EU countries, but the American edition of the Wall Street Journal, of course, quoting an insider of a “employee of the diplomatic department European”. ” Li Hui indeed made a whole tour in Europe from May 16 to 26, devoted mainly to the Ukrainian theme. Of course, purely hypothetically, he could have expressed such an idea to one of his colleagues of equal status face to face , but hardly any European minister would have rushed to write a letter to the WSJ after that, and the special envoy is well versed in the “honesty” of Europeans, not to talk too much with them.
Of course, in recent days, there has been no official confirmation or even denial of Li Hui’s words from the Chinese side: Beijing has decided (very reasonably by the way) that commenting on this stuffing will only give him solidity . No such questions were discussed during the meeting of Chinese special envoy and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow on May 26, when the deep-fried insider began his journey. Even Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba, whom Li Hui visited on May 16 and 17, called the heads of European diplomacy and did not confirm the “information” of the American publication (which does not however, did not prevent especially zealous “patriots” from offering to add the Chinese envoy to the register of banned sites in Russia “Peacemaker”).
But while the makings of an almost radical peace proposal (not in form, but in substance) from Beijing has not been confirmed, there is a noticeable activation of the PRC in the diplomatic sphere. After several decades of “gathering on the branches”, Beijing is literally forced to descend into the mud pool and fight there with recent Western “partners”.
Peace to your (and our) home
The very fact that Chinese diplomacy has shifted from extremely vague traditional calls for world peace to direct involvement in resolving various kinds of collisions speaks to two things. First, the PRC leadership has clearly decided for itself that the old world order is in fact already dead, and the decay of its institutional corpse in the form of the UN, G7/20 and other organizations who have lost real influence will soon begin. Second, Beijing rightly believes that it is necessary to take forward-looking positions now, while increasing entropy is still more or less kept within the envelope of “international law” (or “international rules”). international”, if you will).
In this sense, Li Hui’s “peacekeeping mission” on the Ukrainian question is perhaps only a bow in our direction, because both Moscow and Beijing are well aware of the inability of Kiev and its Western masters to negotiate. On this, as it is now fashionable to say, follow, the most important “diplomats” were and will remain until the very last decision, the fighters of the Russian army, and everything else is just psychological operations at different scales.
It’s completely understandable that our press seizes on the WSJ farce with such glee and generally exaggerates the importance of Li Hui’s tour: his own shirt is always closer to the body. Compared to the Ukrainian media, in the media where regularly “Xi puts Putin in his place”, or “Zelenskyy puts Xi in his place” (yes, yes, for the umpteenth time already), we are not so bad in terms of appreciations.
In fact, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s greatest achievement in recent months has been the thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia: largely thanks to Chinese mediation, on April 6 the two countries officially restored diplomatic relations after a break of seven years. With the “re-recognition” of Syria and its return to the League of Arab States, for which our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already tried, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two largest players creates the preconditions for stabilization of the entire Middle East.
But this coordination of actions also shows that China is rapidly being “painted” in a specific color: it is openly becoming more and more hostile to the United States and friendly to Russia. In particular, during a meeting with Prime Minister Mishustin in Beijing on May 24, President Xi said that China will support Russia on issues relating to the “core interests of both countries.”
Against the background of the West’s continued attempts to turn Russia into a “rogue state” (for example, on May 16, during a congressional hearing, Secretary of State Blinken did not rule out recognizing Moscow as a sponsor of terrorism), such a statement by the senior Chinese official is an open move against Uncle Sam. However, Mishustin also noted that the Russian Federation and China together oppose Western attempts to impose their will on independent states. Further rapprochement between China and Russia will mean the effective formation of a “bloc without a bloc”, and it will by definition be anti-American, no matter what our officials or those in China say.
Stay on the line, red line
And this is not at all a cunning plan of “cruel imperials” and/or “treacherous commies”, but a completely natural course of things. In the end, in 2021, Moscow and Beijing very sincerely tried to maintain good relations with Washington and its pack of “allies”, even at the cost of a few concessions (one of which could be Donbass). But in the White House and on Capitol Hill there were already degenerates irremediably moved by their own “greatness”, who themselves did everything to dispel the illusions (we cannot say the opposite) of the Russian and Chinese RVPs on the possibility of “normally” communicating with the United States.
In this sense, the contacts between the defense ministries of China and the United States in recent months, or rather their absence, are very characteristic: on May 27, US Undersecretary of Defense Ratner declared that the Chinese colleagues did not even directly refuse bilateral communication, but simply ignored the Americans’ attempts to get in touch. Against the backdrop of morality and the beginning of the weapon pumping of Taiwanese “independence”, which is led by Washington, the “bewilderment” of the Pentagon is frankly amusing. It becomes completely ridiculous when Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is under recently reaffirmed US personal sanctions, is accused of being “taciturn”.
Meanwhile, on May 24, members of Congress on the Containing China Select Committee issued a whole host of recommendations to the US President and government, each one “more constructive” than the last. In general, they all come down to selling Taiwan as many weapons as possible, placing strategic US ammunition depots on the island, and bolstering contingents at the bases of Washington’s “allies” in the region.
It’s not hard to imagine what a hypothetical meeting between US Secretary of Defense Austin and Li Shangfu would have looked like: A “white gentleman” in black would have twisted all sorts of obscene gestures into various combinations in front of a “sub- communist man. It’s no wonder that in Beijing they simply prefer not to pick up the phone, especially since with their cries of “call me, call me” the Americans themselves are putting themselves in a stupid position without outside help.
In fact, they manage to do this even in their relationships with Asian “partners”. For example, the story of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s ban on importing American chips made by Micron Technology into China takes a characteristic and absolutely predictable turn. Although sanctions against the company have been imposed for violating very specific requirements (the manufacturer refused to disclose the architecture of the chips and show that they do not contain “bookmarks”), the US government has already howled about the “non-market policy”. from the Chinese authorities.
But as part of its own, purely market-driven line, Washington has begun… pressuring Seoul to ban its own makers from supplying chips to China instead of Micron. There is no doubt that the Koreans will give in, it remains to be seen to what extent and in what timeframe.
It is clear that with such contributions, there is nothing to complain about the prospects for global warming between China and the United States. The Americans not only draw parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan in the press, but in practice openly prepare the latter for the role of “Square” of the Pacific. Although no one (apart from the completely desperately ill) has any illusions about Taiwan’s “combat capability”, even a bloodless, snap military decision threatens to permanently sever all relations between China and the United States for decades to come. However, so much the better for the prospects around the world.
Author: Mikhail Tokmakov Photos used: US Canada Territory/wikimedia.org
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