What is judged in the US-China talks on a background of Ukraine

By Costas Raptis

They started from different hemispheres and bridged the distance meeting in Rome. With the mind set primarily on a conflict that takes place thousands of miles away from their own countries, but in which all international correlations and balances are judged.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s State Adviser (and member of the Communist Party’s Bureau of Foreign Affairs) Yan Jiechi have today perhaps the most crucial date that could take place in the wake of the US war. Washington is trying to keep Beijing away from Moscow.

The Anglo-Saxon press has already created the right climate, with reports that the Russian side has asked for military aid and financial support from its Chinese partners, while Sullivan himself has warned that there will be “absolutely” serious consequences if China helps Russia. the sanctions against her.

But China is already in an economic war on the American side and certainly does not like to show that it is giving in to the language of threats. Moreover, Moscow’s request for help to Beijing, which was vehemently denied by Chinese leaders, can only be seen as a communicative finding to persuade China not to share the isolation of a lost Russia anyway. In other words, the Asian giant is called upon to allow the long extension of the Ukrainian crisis, which now seems to be a central choice of the West.

Only the deeper logic of the Ukrainian war, with two warring countries in which China has major interests, is precisely the disruption of the land routes through which the ambitious plan of Eurasian integration passes. The fact that tensions in global competition have escalated much faster than the Chinese side would like is not reason enough for Beijing to return to a state of geopolitical self-restraint.

Things are complicated – but from another point of view very simple as well. China has made the strategic choice of an ever-deepening co-operation with Russia (a “comprehensive strategic co-ordination partnership strategy for the new era”, as it was typically called at the meeting of the two foreign ministers on Thursday), which is not considered But that does not mean that China is going to fight Russia’s wars, or vice versa – especially when Beijing analysts say those who believe that Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian adventure will lead to defeat.

In any case, China is interested in promoting the Ukrainian conflict as a “well-meaning third party” that could put its services, but again at a low profile, in the service of a political settlement of the conflict as soon as possible. already the information that Beijing wants to act as a “facilitator” and not a “mediator” of Russian-Ukrainian contacts.In other words, it is ready to reap any success, but not failure.

At a time when even Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela received a visit from a US delegation in order for the international oil market to pass through Russia’s economic blockade with less vibration, it is not surprising that previous allegations against China (for its treatment of of the Uighurs, of curtailing Hong Kong’s autonomy, of its claims to the South China Sea, etc.) seem to be a thing of the past – and that’s already a gain for Beijing.

But the real game is much broader and concerns the international monetary order. Can Washington really blackmail Beijing into an “either with us or against us” option?

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