(John Ransom, Headline USA) President Joe Biden’s poor handling of the Russia-Ukraine crisis has had another unforeseen downside for the United States, helping to boost the prestige of China at a time when China really needed a helping hand, said experts.
In what can only be interpreted as a rebuff to Biden’s leadership in this crisis, the spokesman for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently made overtures about China mediating a possible peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia.
For decades, the Ukrainian-Chinese relations have been based on mutual respect, understanding and benefit. We share Beijing’s position on the need to find a political solution to the war against Ukraine and call on China as a global power to play an important role in this effort.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 21, 2022
Until now, the concern of Biden has been to stop China from aiding Russia. But foreign policy analysts say he’s missed the more long-term influence that China could have in playing a role in brokering the peace between Russia and Ukraine, at a time where China has also been isolated diplomatically over its claims to own Taiwan and its human rights abuses against its minorities.
“So far we’ve seen China’s neutral position. And, as I said before, we believe that China … should play a more noticeable role in bringing this war to (an) end and in building up a new global security system,” Andriy Yermak, who heads Zelenskyy’s office, said according to Reuters.
Li Wei, an international relations professor with Renmin University in Beijing, said the Russia-Ukraine war had more significance than 9/11 or the market crash of 2008, and offered China the rare opportunity to burnish its image in a crucial time, reported the South China Morning Post.
“It would be a great opportunity for China if it could play a constructive role in such a very complex game of great powers, and this opportunity could even shape the entire diplomatic landscape and external environment of China for years to come,” Li told the event on China-US relations hosted by Renmin University this week, according to Yahoo.
And some experts are warning that for Western countries, having China act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine is a zero-sum game, at least for the West, while it gives China most of the benefit.
“Even if Beijing were to help mediate in the short term, essentially it’s going to be like inviting someone in to give them control and position over an issue that’s incredibly important to democratic countries,” Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a senior fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations told DW.com.
“I think democratic countries are putting themselves in a very weak position here.”
