Foreign Affairs: China's Internal Rift Has Begun
- 30.07.2025, 11:02
On the issue of the war in Ukraine.
While many officials in China want an end to the war in Ukraine, Beijing is unlikely to play a leading role in resolving the conflict and achieving lasting peace, in part because of its "ambivalent" approach to the issue.
As Foreign Affairs writes, more than three years after the war began, members of China's strategic community, including foreign policy and security officials, researchers and experts, remain divided over who is to blame and how to lead It is not just a matter of disagreement between different camps of opinion; most policymakers recognize both viewpoints and are unwilling to fully support one at the expense of the other," the publication writes.
As FA emphasizes, before the conflict began in February 2022, China maintained friendly relations with Russia and Ukraine, but throughout the war China continued to trade with both countries.
"Many Western observers focus on China's ties with Russia, but China remains Ukraine's largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between China and Ukraine reached nearly $8 billion in 2024."
"At the same time, Russia remains much more central to China's overall foreign policy strategy. The annual trade volume between China and Russia is nearly $250 billion.
In addition, Western leaders often lump China and Russia into the same camp, calling them part of an "axis of autocracies," which has further undermined China's perception of Western countries and their governments.
At the same time, the article points out, although Western observers and policymakers emphasize the fact of a "borderless partnership" between China and Russia, this idea exaggerates the complexity of Sino-Russian relations. The phrase itself is more of a rhetorical device than a description of how Beijing sees Moscow.
"China has tried to remain neutral or even passive in a war it neither expected nor welcomed. But this approach has not reduced tensions. Instead, contrary to China's wishes, the war further exacerbated antagonism between the great powers-China, Russia, the United States, and Europe. No one benefited from this outcome, least of all Ukraine," FA wrote.