NEW YORK– Three days before his communist government turns 75, China’s foreign minister on Saturday warned fellow leaders against an “expansion of the battlefield” in Russia’s war with Ukraine and said the Beijing’s government remained committed to shuttle diplomacy and efforts to push the conflict toward an end.
“The top priority is to commit not to expand the battlefield. …China is committed to playing a constructive role,” Wang Yi said. He warned against other nations “pouring fuel on the fire or exploiting the situation for selfish purposes,” a probable reference to the United States.
Wang’s speech does not appear to break any new ground, as is generally the case with recent Chinese practice at the annual meeting of leaders of the United Nations General Assembly. In fact, his boss, Chinese President Xi Jinping, has not attended the leaders’ meeting since 2021 – and even then virtually, during the pandemic. Xi has not been there in person for several years.
On the sidelines of the assembly on Friday, China and Brazil sought to drum up enthusiasm for their peace plan for Ukraine. They said a dozen countries had signed a statement saying they “took note” of the six-point plan. The plan calls for, among other provisions, a peace conference with Ukraine and Russia and no expansion of the battlefield.
Ukrainian officials received the proposal coolly, but the countries that signed the communiqué are forming a group of “friends for peace” for their U.N. ambassadors to continue the conversation among themselves. Ranging from Algeria to Zambia, members are largely from African or Latin American countries. Wang was careful to note Friday that the group does not decree each country’s policies.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference on Saturday that Russia was ready to provide assistance and advice to the group, adding that “it is important that their proposals are supported by realities and are not simply taken from a few abstract conversations.
China is an ally of Russia, a nation accused of violating the United Nations Charter by Secretary-General António Guterres, the United States and many countries around the world. Moscow insists its so-called “special military operation” is an act of self-defense, which is permitted under the United Nations Charter.
China’s continued and vehement insistence on respecting the sovereignty of other nations is not only a cornerstone of its foreign policy, but also a fundamental philosophy for the government of a nation that has traditionally struggled to maintain the control at its borders – from Xinjiang and Tibet to the far west. in Hong Kong and Taiwan off its eastern coast.
China’s current government was established on October 1, 1949, when it was proclaimed by communist revolutionary-turned-leader Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square after a civil war with the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. Nationalists began governing Taiwan as a self-governing island, and this practice continues today – and it is something China rejects and insists is just a situation temporary for a territory that it considers sovereign.
“There are neither two Chinas nor one China-one Taiwan. On this issue, there is no gray area,” Wang said. “Taiwan will eventually return to the arms of the motherland. This is the dominant trend in history that no one can stop.
The Republic of China – the government of Taiwan established by Chiang Kai-shek – was a member of the United Nations until 1971, when the UN recognized the government in Beijing. Since then, Beijing has worked to isolate Taiwan by rewarding countries that recognize it diplomatically and, sometimes, punishing those that do not. At every high-level meeting of the General Assembly, leaders of the scattered countries supporting Taiwan – usually small – lament from the podium that the island’s government is shunned by the international community.
Wang also expressed his views on China’s positions on the growing tensions in the Middle East and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The latter has always been a key strategic priority for Beijing.
MIDDLE EAST: Asserting that “the Palestine issue is the greatest wound of human conscience,” Wang reiterated that China supports the creation of a Palestinian state and full membership in the UN and insisted that a two-state solution is “the fundamental way out of this”. He did not mention Israel by name or directly refer to the war that began when Hamas fighters crossed the Gaza border into Israel, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens of hostages.
THE KOREAN PENINSULA: As is the case with Chinese policy, Wang expressed support for a transition “from armistice to a peace mechanism.” The two Koreas remain technically in a state of war since a 1950-53 conflict split the peninsula into north and south. China has long supported North Korea while the United States is a close ally of the South. He issued a veiled warning against others trying to pull the strings in East Asia: “We are strongly opposed to interference from countries outside the region.”
The Korean Peninsula broke into U.S.-backed capitalist South Korea and Soviet-backed socialist North Korea after its liberation from 35-year Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II in 1945. The two Koreas have the largest number of countries in the world. strongly fortified border.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Wang repeated China’s usual arguments, saying “no country should encroach on another’s internal affairs in the name of human rights” and insisting that China had chosen his own path, which is just as legitimate as that of others.
“We have found a human rights development path that suits China’s national condition,” Wang said.
Other countries and international rights groups have long condemned Beijing’s treatment of Tibetans, Uighurs in the far-western Xinjiang region and, more recently, activists in the Hong Kong “special administrative region.”
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report. See more AP coverage of the United Nations General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations
