China tells EU it can't accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, official says

[In It to Win It]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China, an official briefed on the talks said, contradicting Beijing’s public position of neutrality in the conflict.

The admission came during what the official said was a four-hour meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday in Brussels that “featured tough but respectful exchanges, covering a broad range of issues from cyber security, rare earths to trade imbalances, Taiwan and Middle East.”

The official said Wang’s private remarks suggested Beijing might prefer a protracted war in Ukraine that keeps the United States from focusing on its rivalry with China. They echo concerns of critics of China’s policy that Beijing has geopolitically much more at stake in the Ukrainian conflict than its admitted position of neutrality.

On Friday, at a regular Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefing, spokeswoman Mao Ning was asked about the exchange, which was first reported in the South China Morning Post, and re-affirmed Beijing’s long-standing position on the three-year war.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-tells-eu-t-accept-163804994.html

[Biophilic]

1. What a mess.

The Chinese can’t allow Russia to lose and Europe really can’t allow Russia to win.

[Irish_Dem]

2. China is very foolish.

If China played its cards right it could get a big piece of re-building Ukraine and becoming a business partner.

And China could establish itself as a major power broker if it helped end the war.

[Igel]

4. China looks transactional.

It's deeply ideological.

Under Mao, millions died for the "goal". Stalin did the same.

Authoritarian socialist countries know what's best for the future, and what needs to be done now for the "bright shining future" is justified by the ends.

Pseudo-capitalism with a (fascist) corporatist face was a tool. Conservatives and neoliberals believed, for one reason or another, that trade and industrial relaxation of control would lead to a 'better', less belligerent PRC (one, that capitalist prosperity bred appreciation rights = democracy; the other, that prosperity and the 'arc of history' led to goodness = democracy ... Both were deluded) .

Xi was a reversion to old school. Ideology first. After that, stuff. During liberalization structures weakened in the PRC CP and society relaxed. But the CP never lost sight of its goal: To get to Communism, the goal, one had to have socialism. And while opinion might be mixed--can you get to socialism without passing through communism, or is meeting societal needs the required precondition--in the end the goal was still socialism. State socialism. The "arc of history" precursor to Communism--where the state withers and we're all as one.

There's a bargain so far, both in the PRC and Putin's Russia: civil society has strictures but within those, is left alone. Those strictures are lax enough that most people, even domestic college grads, are okay with them. We'd chafe, some intentionally so, esp. the preachers among us. If you want to see what you want, you see sprigs of hope. Seeing what you want is usually delusional.

Fairly long ago, some said that politics is downstream of culture. The USSR and many of its quasi-acolytes believed this and wanted to remake culture; some do. A reviled statement, they act on. It's a hard truth, but Russia and the PRC have politics downstream of culture--at least the culture of the dominant voices (and I don't mean a small %age).

If Xi sees an advantage in ending the war, he'd jump for it. He doesn't see it, apparently, as advancing his goal, which is ideological. (In the PRC's case, Marxism with a Chinese 'soul').

[TheBlackAdder]

3. Russia can quit. China wants the war to continue to further leverage Russia.

[Renew Deal]

5. There may be truth to this

There was a report some time ago that Trump wants to be close to Russia because he feels that he can’t go against both. So if the US is getting along with Russia, the Has an fo us on China.