The war in Ukraine continues to shape China\u2019s foreign relations. When European leaders visited Beijing last week to discuss trade and security, the need to find a resolution to the war was one major reason why Chinese-European relations had reached an \u201cinflection point,\u201d according to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. For Europe, China\u2019s close ties with Russia and perceived support for its war effort have overshadowed ties between China and Europe for more than three years. In Beijing, European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa told his counterparts that China should \u201cuse its influence on Russia to respect the United Nations Charter and to bring an end of its war of aggression against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese leaders have made some efforts to help broker a long-term peace deal, but they have not been able to push the conflict closer to a resolution. Although many officials in China<\/a> want the war to end, Beijing is unlikely to play a leading role in resolving the conflict and achieving a lasting peace in the region. There is no consensus among either Chinese scholars or the general public on how to understand the war\u2014and therefore on how to respond. China\u2019s close ties with Russia and its strategic culture have also made it difficult for Beijing to press Moscow to make any concessions that might favor Ukraine. The longer the war drags on, however, the harder it will become to resolve fundamental tensions between China and Europe.<\/p>\n DIVIDED AT HOME<\/p>\n Forty months into the war in Ukraine<\/a>, members of China\u2019s strategic community, including foreign policy and security officials, researchers, and pundits, still have differing views on who is at fault and how leaders in Beijing should respond. Chinese social media platforms have been ablaze with fierce debates between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian voices.<\/p>\n For some policymakers and citizens, the war is a conflict between two sovereign states in which Russia<\/a> has violated Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity. Given China\u2019s own history of suffering foreign invasions, which has left an indelible mark on its collective memory, many Chinese leaders and citizens empathize with Ukraine. China\u2019s diplomatic rhetoric emphasizes its commitment to national sovereignty and independence and its opposition to the use of force against other states\u2014principles that align with the UN Charter and that reflect Ukraine\u2019s position. Russia\u2019s actions, then, go against international law that China claims to uphold. Moreover, since the Soviet Union\u2019s dissolution, China has established positive relations with Ukraine. Ukraine has supplied vital technology to China, most notably jet engines, which has been a boon for China\u2019s military and industrial development.<\/p>\n Others see the war as a continuation of the ongoing reorganization of the region after the end of the Cold War<\/a>. Although the former Soviet republics are now independent states, the ties that bind them together trace back centuries. Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine are particularly close. The process of reconstructing these interconnected societies along newly drawn nation-state borders is much easier said than done\u2014and has been difficult, painful, and often bloody.<\/p>\n For those who view the region in this light, the war in Ukraine is also part of a decades-long conflict in which Western countries have ignored Russia\u2019s underlying grievances and concerns. Much like how the Allied treatment of Germany after World War I sowed the seeds of World War II, continuous Western encroachment into Russia\u2019s traditional geopolitical space after the Cold War stoked Russian anxieties about encirclement. Once the region achieved relative stability following the Soviet collapse, it became inevitable that Russia would seek to push back against perceived Western pressure.<\/p>\n