a Chinese mediator sent to Europe to “make peace”

China seems determined to establish itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. After a “peace plan” presented in February, Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in March, a discussion with Volodymyr Zelensky in April, Beijing is sending one of its key men to Europe. He has just started his visit by kyiv.

His name is Li Hui, he is 70 years old and he is the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit Ukraine since the war began. His CV speaks for him: ambassador for ten years in Moscow, from 2009 to 2019, he is also deputy minister of foreign affairs and representative of Eurasian affairs. Li Hui has just spent two days in kyiv and is expected in Poland on Friday May 19, before France next week, then Germany and Russia at the end of the month.

A Chinese peace plan

Beijing’s goal is to promote a political settlement to the war through what is often called “the Chinese peace plan”, a 12-point document released by Beijing a year after the war began in February. Document which enjoins the two parties to hold talks, which opposes any recourse to nuclear weapons, and which calls for “respect the territorial integrity of all countries”. And the formula is deliberately vague: it is difficult to know what territorial integrity China is talking about.

On Wednesday in Kiev, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs insisted to the Chinese envoy: the restoration of a lasting and just peace must be based on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. For Dmitro Kouleba, kyiv will not accept any proposal that would imply the loss of its territories or a freezing of the conflict. Clarification while China, a close partner of Moscow, has never publicly condemned the Russian invasion.

It is far from being a coincidence: the G7 Summit opens tomorrow in Japan. China will be precisely at the heart of the discussions between the great Western powers. They must maintain their commitment to Ukraine and discuss the loopholes that allow Moscow to circumvent the G7 sanctions. Flaws that go through China in particular: Beijing is accused of re-exporting products containing sensitive technologies to Russia. And the Chinese envoy Li Hui is not only in Europe to talk about peace in Ukraine, he is also there to iron out these few differences with his partners.