Why China gave consent to Kuleba's visit: political scientist analyzes Beijing's position

Why China agreed to Kuleba's visit: a political scientist analyzed Beijing's position Angela Figin

The other day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made an official visit to China. Our top diplomat positively assessed the results of the meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

They say that China has assured that it supports Ukraine's sovereignty, and is supposedly focused on resolving the war. However, Ukrainians distrust China because Beijing actively cooperates with Russia, in particular, transfers technologies, machine tools, and ammunition components to it. In a conversation with 24 Channel political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko assessed the position of the PRC.

Why China suddenly agreed to the visit

Over the past 12 years, not a single top official from Ukraine, in particular the president, prime minister or minister of foreign affairs, has been to China.

Although I know what Petro Poroshenko wanted, but the Chinese put forward a huge list of preliminary demands, and Volodymyr Zelensky, – said Fesenko.

He noted why China suddenly agreed to the visit of the Ukrainian delegation. Probably, Beijing did not like the way Vladimir Putin acts.

In particular, this concerns the visits of the head of the Kremlin to North Korea and the alliance with Kim Jong-un, the visit to Vietnam, with which China has territorial disputes, as well as the pompous visit of the Prime Minister of India to Moscow.

“China made a return gesture – they invited the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ours did the right thing by playing on the disagreements between China and Russia,” the political scientist added.

How Ukraine should work with China

China has its own interests. Kuleba also noted this. In particular, he said that there are differences in peace plans. It is obvious that China is closer to Russia than to Ukraine, Beijing is distrustful of Washington and perceives the war against the Russian invasion through the prism of its competition with the States.

However, in general, China wants to be a peacemaker and this can be used at least on a limited scale, – Fesenko noted.

Beijing has not recognized the annexation of Crimea, as well as the occupation of Ukrainian territories since 2014. However, the main thing is that the Chinese do not recognize Russia's steps.

This visit also gives hope for more active participation of China in the peace process, so that they put pressure on Russia, so that the Kremlin removes its ultimatums. Another important goal is that dialogue with China will facilitate our active work with the countries of the Global South.

“China is a difficult partner. However, we must work with Beijing so that the PRC does not become our enemy, but on the contrary, perhaps at least partially, but contributes to the movement towards a just world,” the political scientist noted.