The war in Ukraine has pushed the conflict between different power blocs that span a range of political systems and ideologies to the foreground. China has been Russia’s biggest trade partner for a long time now, while Russia is China’s most important energy supplier. Trade relations between Russia and China have grown even stronger over the course of the war. What’s more, President Xi has repeatedly said that China is prepared to further deepen its existing relationship with Russia.

China has continued to pursue normal economic relations with both Russia and Ukraine and has not offered military support to either side. China has even made large-scale investments in Ukraine and has had to absorb losses from shipbuilding projects, iron and steel works, highways, and other infrastructure that has been decimated. Chinese investment projects worth billions have been destroyed in the war, and a key transit route for the new Silk Road that ran through Ukraine has now been laid to waste. Ukraine is also important for maintaining food security in China, especially when it comes to grain exports. This could mean that countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Poland will become more important to China in this regard.

China’s reluctance to openly criticize Russia must also be viewed against the backdrop of growing tensions with the US. The ongoing trade war between China and the US simply means that China does not want to distance itself from Russia. If China were to participate in the international sanctions against Russia, then this would amount to an act of submission to the US in their eyes, so Beijing has instead been exploiting the war for propaganda purposes by repeatedly pointing to Washington’s responsibility and complicity in the war. The geopolitical balancing act that China is attempting here to secure its own economic and political interests has contributed to the escalation in reciprocal accusations that we have been seeing on a global level as of late.

The original article was published in the recent Tagesspiegel supplement. You can read it here in German.