Will Biden And Xi Jinping Stop War In Ukraine?
20- 7.11.2023, 20:30
- 31,092
A political scientist busts the main myths about the meeting between the heads of the United States and China.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet at the APEC 2023 in San Francisco on November 11.
Will China and the US stop the war? Does Beijing belong to the “axis of evil”? Why is the meeting taking place now? Charter97.org asked these and other questions to Ukrainian political scientist, associate professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Petro Oleshchuk:
– China perhaps was not ready a year ago. After all, we remember that meetings between representatives of the United States and China at various levels were repeatedly disrupted.
It seems that the Chinese leadership understood that it is necessary to solve the accumulated problems somehow. I think that this is the reason for this meeting.
At the same time, it is obvious that both China and the United States see the other side as the main competitor - the world's leading state. Other states still cannot claim this status.
In general, both participants perceive this event as a meeting of the two main leaders of the modern world.
– What can we expect?
– To be honest, I don’t expect anything supernatural. Although, probably, everyone expects that all issues will be resolved at this meeting. I think that the main point will concern how to prevent further escalation on a global scale, and this escalation going beyond the boundaries within which it currently exists.
Biden and Xi Jinping can discuss how to prevent this and other unpredictable, uncontrollable processes. It corresponds to the interests of both states.
– People are talking about the “axis of evil”: Iran, North Korea, Russia, the Lukashenka regime. Is China involved?
– Yes, China is often not mentioned in this context. However, when Biden, in his speech on assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, compared the Putin regime and Hamas, he was silent about China.
On the other hand, it is quite obvious that this very “axis of evil” would not have been able to appear and exist without China. China is the most serious economy of all these states, a source of various valuable components, and it’s a sales market for Russia. This “axis of evil” could not have reached its current position without China, so China, one might say, is not part of it, but leads it.
It is important to note that China is a key state in it; it wisely uses, so to speak, its partners to solve its problems, while remaining behind their backs.
If any kind of harsh blackmail of the world is needed, they use, for example, North Korea or the Russian Federation. Iran terrorizes the entire Middle East, and through this puts pressure on the West. China does not seem to be involved in all this, but it invariably offers its mediation services to resolve something with these damned terrorists.
I repeat, China is part of the “axis of evil,” but it acts in such a way that it is much more difficult to formally accuse it of anything than any other state.
– We can come across two extreme opinions: supposedly Biden and Xi Jinping will “now come to an agreement and put Russia in its place,” “the war will be over”, or now “Ukraine will be exchanged for Taiwan” and “forced to negotiate”. Is there any truth in these conspiracy theories?
– No, there is not a grain of truth. First, China and the United States do not have the appropriate 100% mechanisms for this that would solve all this. Secondly, where does the confidence come from that China is interested in such scenarios?
Why does China care whether Russia controls Ukraine or not? China is completely satisfied with the current situation, when Russia is mired in war, buys Chinese components, and sells natural resources to China below the world prices to buy these components.
Russia is increasingly turning into a colony of China, and it’s good for it to keep this all going as long as possible. Again, China will not give anyone any guarantee that it will not do anything against Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan its territory and will take these actions. Everyone understands this perfectly well. The actions may not be so aggressive, this topic may be taken off the agenda even for years, but no more. China's policy will be aimed at taking control of Taiwan, so there can be significant changes.
I think that, first of all, they will be concerned about how to prevent a nuclear war. Perhaps they will also discuss Russia's nuclear blackmail cases. How to deter it and prevent the use of nuclear weapons.
Everything else is not what they are going to discuss at this level.
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