Beijing’s strategy to handle views on Russia’s invasion leaked on social media. China engaged in mental gymnastics by abstaining on the vote calling out Russia’s invasion while censoring views seen as too critical of the Kremlin. Chinascope brings you the news and views from China that made the headline this week.
China over the week
China’s conflicting position on “maintaining territorial integrity” and its close ties with Russia emerged as a test this past week as images of Ukraine’s invasion poured worldwide
Beijing tried both – calling for diplomacy to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine and censoring any views on social media criticising the Kremlin for the invasion. China’s messaging and actions on the invasion don’t match.
On 25 February, President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin over phone to convey his position on the Ukraine invasion. Xi said that China supports Russia and Ukraine “resolving the issue through negotiation”.
“We must abandon the Cold War mentality, attach importance to and respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries, and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations,” Xi told Putin.
Domestically, the Chinese state media has tried to portray Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” and justified Putin’s actions. The hashtag “What’s special about Russia’s military operation” was viewed 28 million times on Twitter-like Weibo.
Following Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as “independent entities”, the Russia-Ukraine tensions began trending on Chinese social media.
On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 11 of the top 15 search trends on Baidu were about Ukraine. Baidu set up a live page covering every development on the invasion.
Chinese state media outlets on social media platforms published Russian state media’s claims on Ukraine by circulating disinformation by the Kremlin. CCTV reported that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had left Kyiv, a claim initially put out by Russian state media.
But China’s management of public views on the invasion tells a different story.
The Weibo account of state-run Beijing News accidentally shared the orders from Chinese authorities to ban posts that are “not positive towards Russia or those that portray the West positively”.
Surprisingly, Ukraine has been using Weibo — like Twitter — to challenge Russia. The hashtag “Ukraine issued a statement on Weibo” was viewed 360 million times. But Ukraine’s Weibo diplomacy has also been restricted as comments were censored.
Several Chinese social media users called out the invasion despite the state restricting criticism of Russia and its actions in Ukraine.
Users said that China was once humiliated by foreign powers, and the situation in Ukraine is like “colonization”. These views have been heavily censored. A letter by five Chinese professors denouncing Russia’s invasion was also censored on WeChat.
Officially, Beijing seems to be engaging in mental gymnastics to achieve strategic ambiguity by abstaining from voting on the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution condemning the invasion. But China’s ongoing economic support of Russia has raised questions about where Beijing’s heart lies. The Wall Street Journal’s chief China correspondent Lingling Wei described the strategy on Russia as “all talk, little action”.
There have been other surprising elements of China’s position on Ukraine.
“Another message that has become increasingly salient and vocal is that ‘Ukraine deserved it’ — that came as a really big shock to me,” said Yun Sun, an expert on Chinese foreign policy.
Beijing “has decided to side with Russia”, but a change in “stance would be a question of degree, not direction”, Yun Sun told Financial Times.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that senior officials of the Joe Biden administration held over half a dozen meetings with Chinese officials, where they pleaded with them to make Russia not invade Ukraine. But the report says that the US has intelligence that China shared the information with Moscow instead of urging Putin to stop.
As many would expect, the invasion of Ukraine has brought a sharp focus on the Taiwan issue this week.
The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said its guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson sailed through the Taiwan Strait. The transit mission is being seen as a signal to Beijing.
Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry tried to stop the international media from drawing a parallel between Ukraine and Taiwan.
“Taiwan for sure is not Ukraine. Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China’s territory. This is an indisputable historical and legal fact. The one-China principle is a universally recognized norm governing international relations,” said Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman. The hashtag “Foreign media confuse Taiwan and Ukraine issues, China refutes” was viewed 4.5 million times on Baidu.
If that wasn’t enough, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the US should now clarify its position on defending Taiwan from a potential Chinese invasion. “By showing it may intervene, it keeps China in check, but by leaving the possibility that it may not intervene, it makes sure that the [Taiwanese] forces for independence do not run out of control,” Abe said.
His comments started a trend on Weibo. The hashtag “Abe discusses Japan’s deployment of US nuclear weapons” was viewed over 62 million times on Weibo.
The story of Xiaohuamei, a woman found chained in Xuzhou city, has become a leading topic of discussion. At least 17 officials in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu have been sacked in response. Xiaohuamei is from a remote village in Yunnan, and she was sold as a bride twice in the 1990s, according to an investigation. There has been growing outrage among the Chinese public to investigate the links of human trafficking and what led to her inhumane treatment.
Also read: Ukraine is distraction for Xi. Beijing has enough to worry in Hong Kong
China in world news
The US Department of Justice started the China Initiative between 2019 and 2020 to investigate and prosecute trade secret theft and economic espionage. But the initiative came under heavy criticism after espionage cases were brought against US academics of Chinese origin with little evidence. The initiative has now ended.
“Anything that creates the impression that the Department of Justice applies different standards based on race or ethnicity harms the department and our efforts, and it harms the public,” said Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security.
What you must read this week
How Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crusade went global — Edward White and Victor Mallet
Maria Repnikova on Chinese soft power and Ukraine — Jeremy Goldkorn
China’s Content Moderators Are Overworked and Chronically Stressed — Luo Meihan
Also read: On Taiwan, China will adopt salami slicing. Keeps US at bay
Experts this week
“Although we say that there is no direct connection between Ukraine and Taiwan, we find that the two major geopolitical conflicts seem to be artificially tied up, homogenizing and demonizing this kind of strategic counterattack. By doing so maliciously created some discourse traps, such as “new cold war”, “authoritarian alliance”, and so on. It can be said that the United States will not easily give up using Taiwan and Ukraine as pawns to suppress China and Russia. This is an exact test of the ability of China and Russia to deal with sudden crises,” said Wang Qingsong, associate researcher, Russian Studies Center, East China Normal University.
Podworld
William Klein served as the acting deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Beijing. Klein spoke to SupChina’s Kaiser Kuo about the mistrust between the US and China and the future direction of their relationship. Chinascope recommends listening to the conversation.
The author is a columnist and a freelance journalist, currently pursuing an MSc in international politics with focus on China from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He was previously a China media journalist at the BBC World Service. He tweets @aadilbrar. Views are personal.
This is a weekly round-up that Aadil Brar writes about what’s buzzing in China. This will soon be available as a subscribers’-only product.
(Edited by Prashant)