The Shanghai branch of the Communist Party newspaper, People’s Daily, on February 27, 2022.
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BEIJING – In China, tightly controlled coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has focused heavily on negotiations.
Beijing’s line is to push for negotiations, as China tries to position itself further away from Russia than was portrayed in early February during a high-level meeting between the Chinese president. Xi Jinping and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
When the Ukrainian delegation arrived at the Belarusian border for the first round of talks with Russia on Monday, Chinese state media was quick to update and even live-stream the proceedings. State media carried reports of Mr. Xi’s call with Mr. Putin late on Friday, focusing on the Russian leader’s willingness to negotiate.
As the fighting began on Thursday, China’s foreign ministry still insisted on negotiations. And though they say China doesn’t like what they’re seeing, it refuses to classify the attack as an invasion.
State media reported
Instead, Chinese state media used the term “special military operation”. State broadcaster CCTV’s daily evening news covered the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but mostly in a short clip at the end of a roughly half-hour program in an international news section.
Once again, discussion of the war has focused more on efforts toward negotiations, and less on the Russian offensive.
While the state news agency Xinhua has published visual reports on Ukrainian refugees, several Communist Party newspapers, the People’s Daily, claim to show the refugees arriving at the southern border. east with Russia.
Xinhua News Agency occasionally broadcasts live from Kyiv, mainly about the lives of local residents amid the “conflict”.
The Chinese embassy in Ukraine over the weekend also released a nearly 10-minute video of the ambassador, Fan Xianrong, in which he said he was in Kyiv and heard sirens, explosions and gunfire.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone call Tuesday with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that China was “deeply saddened” to witness the conflict, according to an official statement. in English by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Local media, which published a Chinese version of the reading, also said the call focused on evacuating Chinese nationals.
The state financial media discussed the war’s impact on commodity and market prices.
But as is often the case in China, the media has been overly focused on Xi’s speeches and domestic events.
Beijing is focusing on what is often a politically sensitive time of the year – a largely symbolic gathering of delegates in the capital to pass GDP growth targets, the national budget, and more. and other policy measures. The main meeting will begin on Saturday and last at least a week.
Talk about China-US relations
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine happened on the 50th anniversary of US President Richard Nixon’s visit to China and thawed the ice in US relations with Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has stressed the importance of the US-China relationship and the need to promote cooperation and return to the “right path”, according to commentary by Chinese state media. .
However, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry blamed the US for exacerbating Russia-Ukraine tensions, and the daily evening news reports by state media had left the US unable to handle the pandemic and stability in the Middle East.
During Tuesday’s press conference, China’s Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a single question from reporters about trade with Russia, Ukraine or the United States.
