Ukraine war: West is unfair for making Beijing responsible for resolving conflict, senior Chinese envoy says
- Beijing’s special representative and former UN deputy secretary general Wu Hongbo applauds EU commitment to ‘strategic independence’
- ‘Those who complain about China’s overcapacity are not concerned about China’s production capacity, but rather their own market share,’ he says
“China’s relations with the European Union and its member states are compatible, and [both sides] can develop in a balanced way and promote each other,” Wu said in the question and answer interview published on Thursday morning.
02:20
Russia’s Vladimir Putin visits China’s ‘little Moscow’ Harbin as part of state visit
Wu said the bloc’s autonomy could be seen through its insistence and strong desire to advance ties with China “without targeting, relying on or being controlled by a third party”, adding that the “vast majority” of European states valued China.
“A world of turbulence and change requires Europe to strengthen its strategic autonomy,” Wu said.
“China is not the creator or party to the Ukraine crisis. It has not added fuel to the fire or taken advantage of the situation,” he said. “It is unfair to place the responsibility of resolving the crisis on China.”
A weekly curated round-up of social, political and economic stories from China and how they impact the world.
He said China was “committed to promoting peace and talks, and promoting a political solution to the crisis” and had not supplied arms to any warring party. He also said it strictly controlled the export of dual-use items – those that can be used for both civilian and military applications.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Russian state-owned RIA news agency on Thursday that China could arrange a peace conference in which Russia and Ukraine could take part, which he said would continue China’s efforts to resolve the conflict.
On trade, Wu further addressed complaints of Chinese “overcapacity”, which the US and EU have used to justify subsidies and trade barriers, calling it a “false proposition”.
“Those who complain about China’s ‘overcapacity’ are not concerned about China’s production capacity, but rather their own market share,” Wu said.
The export and production proportions of US chips and agricultural products, German and Japanese cars and French wine are all higher than those from China, yet they are not classified as “overcapacity”, Wu argued.
09:43
Ukraine war two years on: disease, displacement and demands for aid
Ukraine war two years on: disease, displacement and demands for aid
He added that the pursuit of protectionism would thwart the cultivation of “outstanding companies with international competitiveness” and lead to the loss of an economy’s friends, market, credibility and future.
“Protectionism sends an extremely negative signal to the vast number of developing countries, [saying] ‘you must not develop more than me, otherwise you will be severely sanctioned’,” Wu said, adding that Beijing would use all means to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.