Global Insights: In Ukraine Crisis, China Chooses Russia Ties Over Principles

Global Insights: In Ukraine Crisis, China Chooses Russia Ties Over Principles

Russia’s military occupation and impending annexation of the Crimea in Ukraine has put Beijing in a difficult spot, confronting Chinese leaders with numerous competing priorities and principles. Having cultivated good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, they would prefer to avoid antagonizing one party by siding too closely with the other. Yet, China’s recent approach shows how Beijing is now more willing to dilute longstanding foreign policy principles to align with Moscow.

Throughout the months of unrest in Ukraine, Chinese media commentary has generally echoed Russia’s line that Western machinations were contributing to the instability in Kiev, which finally led to the change of regime that triggered Russia’s military intervention in the Crimean Peninsula. Beijing can hardly have welcomed the specter of another mass movement overthrowing a government. In addition to recalling earlier “color revolutions” in which pro-Western factions toppled longstanding pro-Moscow rulers in some of the former Soviet republics, Chinese analysts have warned that these same forces were seeking to overturn China’s communist system.

But the official line of the Chinese government has been much more circumspect. On Feb. 24, the day after former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by the Ukrainian Parliament, China’s United Nations mission issued a statement to the media saying, “We respect the choice made by the Ukrainian people on the basis of national conditions.” Days later, when the first reports of Russian military action in Crimea started trickling in, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang reaffirmed China’s commitment to Ukraine’s “independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and called for a peaceful resolution “with all sides respecting international law”—including the principle of noninterference in another country’s internal affairs.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review