When asked to reassure that China wasn’t planning imminent escalation against Taiwan, Wang demurred. “Let me assure the audience,” he said instead, “that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. It has never been a country and it will never be a country in the future.”
It is therefore no surprise that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “What is happening in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow.”
A MEANINGFUL EFFORT TO END THE WAR?
In Munich, Wang announced that China would launch a peace initiative on the anniversary of the war, and had already been consulting Germany, Italy and France. He said the proposed plan would uphold the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the United Nations Charter while also recognising the legitimate security interests of Russia.
It is not clear how a plan would accomplish this but, presumably, Wang will be in Moscow in part to gain Russian buy-in for the Chinese proposal.
China has played a minor role in the Ukraine war so far other than to state disapproval of Putin’s threatened use of nuclear weapons and to blame the US for fomenting Russia’s actions. But Chinese President Xi Jinping has also met Putin in person and raised his concerns about the war.
For a major power, UN Security Council member, and self-declared friend of Russia, continued inaction could be seen as a lack of interest, lack of imagination, lack of influence, or all three. The difference in optics with Biden in Kyiv could not be starker.