China is taking full advantage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis to warn the US of its threats — a classic example of killing the chicken to scare the monkey. From blaming NATO expansion for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to accusing Ukraine’s desire to join NATO of endangering Russian security or even condemning anti-Russia sanctions imposed upon the outbreak of the war, Beijing’s intentions are only to threaten the US amid the ongoing power struggle. More of this becomes clear as one gets closer to Beijing launching an impossible diplomatic push. Much of China’s criticism of the West stems from the fact that Beijing is dealing with a major strategic problem.
Evan Feigenbaum of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace made an interesting point. It identifies China’s three primary goals in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The first is China’s strategic alliance with Russia. The second is to demonstrate China’s commitment to long-standing foreign policy principles of territoriality and non-interference, and the third is to minimise collateral damage from EU and US sanctions. Beijing officials have been travelling around the world since the war began on February 24.From February 24 to May 19, Beijing had 64 diplomatic talks with international colleagues to address the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. However, one must note that this diplomatic effort is divided into two sections.The first stage concentrated on Western nations in order to manage the impact of Western policy results and the second is China’s move to focus on poorer countries.