cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12334032
Ukraine’s former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Chinese support for Russia was helping it to continue the Ukraine war as he discussed the war’s trajectory at Chatham House on Tuesday 3 November.
Yatsenyuk said that while the Russian economy is in a ‘dire state’, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin still has ‘enough resources to prosecute the war.’ He said the reasons for this included higher oil prices due to the Iran war and Chinese support for Russia.
Yatsenyuk said:
‘I want to be very clear that China isn’t neutral. China actually supports this war, and China is an ally to Russia. Let’s call a spade a spade."
…
“The truth is that China is actually the closest strategic partner to the Russian Federation, and China provided the way to circumvent sanctions for Russia.”
…
He said if the Ukrainian state is preserved, the war ends and various other conditions are met, including Ukraine getting ‘something similar to the Marshall Plan’, then ‘the time will come when Ukraine will regain its complete territorial independency.’
He said he disagreed with the framing of the war as ‘Putin’s war against Ukraine’: ‘This is the war of the Russian people who support Putin against an independent and sovereign nation, which is Ukraine.’
…
You must log in or # to comment.
‘I want to be very clear that China isn’t neutral. China actually supports this war, and China is an ally to Russia. Let’s call a spade a spade."
The spade has a handle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_chain_strategy
As China has said, they cannot allow Russia to lose. That’s why. The US could make them starve if they lose Russia as an ally if Russia collapses as a consequence of this war.
If Ukraine wants peace they have to conciliate America and China.
The USA can do what? Starve China? And because of Russia they can’t? What world is that supposed to be?
A world in which earlier this year USA cut off one of China’s oil supply channels - Venezuela - and significantly degraded another - Iran. The USA can cut off oil supply by sea to China the same way Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. It’s not only possible but that’s a standard scenario bith USA and China have been planning around for a long time. So Russia is the unblockable oil supplier that can keep feeding the Chinese manufacturing (and military) machine if the USA decides to use its military aginst China. Something that could happen for a number of reasons. So the “unlimited partnership” with Russia is just China’s government being competent at planning for its population’s security over the long run. This also provides an avenue for resolving the war - China can and probably will exert leverage on Russia - if a peace process that won’t destabilize Russia is proposed. After all (some of) the European and Russian resources going into bombs could instead be going towards buying more Chinese exports.
You act as if this was an issue for China in isolation, when it was/is costly for the whole planet.
When the USA and China are in a full blown war, it will very likely also be WW3. Pretty much anything is a powerful weapon then, depending on how you want to game it out. That is not argument why China “has” to support Russia. Russia getting their oil infrastructure literally bombed to pieces because of that war they choose to fight. That does also not make that argument better.
It’s your assumption that it’ll be WW3. It could easily not be. Conflicts don’t go from zero to WW automatically and certainly. There’s escalation ladders, they go up and down. The US lead multiple wars against Soviet allies during the Cold War that did not trigger a WW. Some pretty horrific like Vietnam. A particularly devastating scenario doesn’t invalidate the argument for China (or anyone) to secure against a less devastating one. One that’s much more likely.
BTW the US-Israel’s illegal war on Iran is an issue for the whole planet.
China imports $200 billion worth of food. https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/CHN/Year/LTST/TradeFlow/Import/Partner/by-country/Product/Food
If the US block the shipping routes China has only Russia to rely on for calories.
Russia exports $30 billion. If they work together and go vegan that should be enough to avoid starvation.
Russia has a land border with China so the US cannot prevent them from trading with a naval blockade. They would have to fight a war to beat them.
What a super od thing to say. China has tons of borders, not to mention that a naval blockade is hardly possible. But that is supposed to be the reason Ukraine has to somehow make China und the USA get along better? Because then China magically decides to… make Russia stop?
China has tons of borders
Which other country could offer China the food and resources? Pakistan brings a port but that’s not secure enough to feed a country.
that a naval blockade is hardly possible
Why? The Wikipedia article sounds different to me.
For the United States, the island chain strategy is a significant part of the force projection of the U.S. military in the Far East.
Because then China magically decides to… make Russia stop?
The other way around. China supports Russia for their own security. If China is secure they don’t need Russia to win and they will stop their support so Russia can’t keep fighting.
You don’t have to border a county that can supply everything they need itself. All it needs to do is allow shipments through. Blockading China is laughable.
And that is before we recognize China for what they are in terms of production capacity for everything on the planet.
All it needs to do is allow shipments through.
After Iran the US military doesn’t look as strong as before but why do you think that the US cannot enforce a naval blockade against China?
production capacity for everything on the planet.
Which is useless if they don’t have enough food.
