On Feb 24th, the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry of China published a so-called “peace plan”, after Mr. Wang Yi’s high profile visit to the Kremlin. Wang was the foreign minister until the 20 big. He was promoted to be the Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, which supervises the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The official name of the “peace plan” is: “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis”. It contains 12 points, such as:
- Respecting the sovereignty of all countries.
- Abandoning the Cold War mentality.
- Ceasing hostilities.
- Resuming peace talks.
- Resolving the humanitarian crisis.
- Protecting civilians and prisoners of war (POWs).
- Keeping nuclear power plants safe.
- Reducing strategic risks.
- Facilitating grain exports.
- Stopping unilateral sanctions.
- Keeping industrial and supply chains stable.
- Promoting post-conflict reconstruction.
The “plan” looks reasonable if you like nice sound bites. In reality, it is self-contradictory, since respecting sovereignty means expelling Russian invaders from Ukraine. China never publicly denounced the invasion, instead, it adopted Russian propaganda and calls it a “conflict”. China is not really serious about peace, it just wants Ukraine to stop fighting.
This reminds me of a letter of withdrawal by a Ukrainian Jewish Australian writer:
In the last twelve months I’ve learned a lot and changed my mind a lot. Perhaps the most salient lesson is that anti-war can mean pro-genocide. It means pro-genocide right now in Ukraine. All the ‘peace now’ (Habermas et al) talk, all the ‘WWIII’ talk, all the ‘US proxy war’ and ‘NATO warmongering’ talk – all of it, all of them, especially when used as already-loaded-up projectiles – are forms of genocidal speech so long as Russian troops are killing, raping, torturing and kidnapping civilians across Ukraine, and so long as Russian missiles are destroying hospitals, schools and residential high rises with sleeping families inside them daily and nightly. Ukraine by now is the most mined country in the world. They mine dead mothers with still-alive babies tied to them.
To me, this “peace plan” is Chinese government support of Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians.
Inside China, they are saying exactly the same thing: “this is a US proxy war”, “NATO is warmongering”. Ordinary Chinese people accept government propaganda without questioning. One Twitter user recounted her conversation with her mom about the war,
The Mom: We Chinese love peace the most. It is impossible for us to provide weapons. We are not like the USA. If it were not for the USA, the war would be over long time ago.
Twitter User: That means Ukraine would no longer exist.
The Mom: So be it.
Twitter User: So, if someone invaded China, China does not resist and no other country helps, China would soon stop existing, is it a good thing?
The Mom hang up on her.
Ironically, during the second world war, when Japan invaded China, the USA was the country that supported with military aid to the resistance and fight .
Meanwhile, US media is reporting: “China weighs sending drones, ammunition to Russia for Ukraine war “.
“We have said publicly and privately that there have been indications that the Chinese were considering the potential lethal assistance but we’ve also said that we haven’t seen them make that decision or move in that direction,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the NSC said in a briefing with reporters Friday. “And we certainly don’t want them to.”
Zelensky seized the moment of China wanting to play a leadership role in the conflict, and asked to meet Xi:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday he is open to considering parts of the proposal, but that China’s words must be followed by actions.
On Sunday, Sullivan emphasized the importance of a meeting between Chinese and Ukraine leadership.
“China put forward this plan without having had a single conversation since the war began between President Xi [Jinping] and President Zelenskyy,” Sullivan said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The Chinese have talked to the Russians a lot, but at the most senior levels they have not talked to the Ukrainians, and it’s very difficult to advance any kind of peace initiative when there’s that kind of one-sided diplomacy going.”
So, will Xi take up the challenge and step into the centre of the world as he has longed to? So far, he had no reaction to the call for a China-Ukraine summit. But China announced that it will welcome the leader of Russian ally Belarus for a state visit this week as the US again warned Beijing against supplying Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.
Wang Yi’s visit to Moscow is widely reported in China as a diplomatic triumph for China, especially with this video in which Putin was welcoming Wang with open arms. This photo is also very popular:
Meanwhile, China-USA relation seems to have sunk to a new low. First, this picture of Biden by a “China state-affiliated media”, who clearly does not know anything about catholic tradition:
Also, the foreign ministry of China issued a document on Feb 20th, 2023: “US Hegemony and Its Perils”. One paragraph is particularly notable:
The United States exploits the world’s wealth with the help of “seigniorage.” It costs only about 17 cents to produce a one-hundred-dollar dollars bill, but other countries had to pony up 100 dollars of actual goods in order to obtain one. It was pointed out more than half a century ago, that the United States enjoyed exorbitant privilege and deficit without tears created by its dollar, and used the worthless paper note to plunder the resources and factories of other nations.
This line was repeated by Chinese state media CCTV and shocked Some Chinese Twitter users. “Did they really say that?!”
BTW, there is also an internal purge of financial sector inside China. A well known investment banker was disappeared for weeks.
Meanwhile, many signs show that the trade between China and the USA is falling off the cliff. On Twitter, people tells stories of export suppliers losing orders from overseas, workers having a hard time to find jobs, even food delivery business is not thriving any more. A NYT reporter went to Mexico and found out that many made-in-China product became made-in-Mexico.
One last thing, China seems to think that Elon Musk owes his success to China. As the lab-leak theory of the COVID virus is getting media attention again, Global Times published an article with the title: “Musk, are you breaking the cooking pot of China?”. This chinese metaphor is equivalent of “Biting the hands that feed you”.
Now that Xi has got all the power he needs to rule China, he is putting the power to “good use”, right?
Yes, for one, there is a rumour (as reported by a Hong Kong newspaper):
among the changes coming in that “plan for the reform of Party and state institutions” at the 2nd plenum is a massive overhaul of the security system, incl bringing back a central commission for internal affairs
The press article added that the security system, along with immigration, registration, transportation, anti-terrorism, anti-espionage, will leave the state council to form a super commission, which will be called the ministry of internal affairs, and adopt the functions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
As one commented:
If true this would be huge, as it would turn the new Internal Affairs Commission into a supra-national body with super police power.
China also passed a law that would give military court power to take over the criminal justice system during wartime, according to the Lianhezaobao, a Singapore media.
And of course, Xi also chaired a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, in which his handling of COVID pandemic was lauded as “the greatest achievement of mankind”.
An update: the “scientist” who edited human genetics and served three years of prison time, got a visa from the Hong Kong government as a “top talent”, lost the visa as the Hong Kong government withdraw it under public outcry.
Feb 28th (2-28), now an official public holiday called Peace Memorial Day, is the 76th anniversary of the 228 incident of Taiwan (or 228 massacre). in 1947, the local Taiwanese protested the ruling of the Kuomintang and demanded political reform (The Kuomintang had fled from mainland China after its defeat in the civil war and replaced the Japanese as rulers of the island). The Kuomintang government responded with mass arrests and killings.
At noon time, the mayor of Taipei city was attending an activity that commemorates the event, when he was interrupted by some citizens who demanded him to kneel down. The activity was suspended for 10 minutes.
The reason of the protesters demand for the mayor to kneel down to apologize personally: the mayor, Chiang Wan-an is allegedly a great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of Kuomingtang during the civil war. He is caught up in the painful reconciliation process of a free and democratic society. However, he is probably the first person from his family that attended the event and made a public apology.
Allegedly, because his father, Chiang Hsiao-yen was speculated to be the illegitimate son of Chiang Ching-kuo, former leader of the Republic of China. Chiang Ching-kuo was the only biological son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, making Chiang Hsiao-yen the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek. And therefore Chiang Wan-an his great-grandson. More in this Twitter thread and how Chiang Wan-an used his potential family heritage.