The Chinese ambassador said that the "boundless friendship" between China and Russia is a fiction. The Kremlin reacted

By nigratan 

nigroll.com

2 min

April 5, 2023

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China's representative to the European Union Fu Kong met with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of their visit to Beijing. He assured European politicians that statements about "boundless friendship" between Beijing and Moscow are too exaggerated and China is not at all on the side of the Russian Federation, which has unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine, the New York   Times writes .

The ambassador claims that relations between the PRC and the Russian Federation were “intentionally misinterpreted.” He suggested that the ties between the two countries may not be as limitless and cloudless as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin stated during the meeting.

“Boundless is nothing but rhetoric,” Fu Kong said.

The Chinese diplomat also assured that Beijing has not provided and will not provide military assistance to the Russian Federation. He stressed that China does not recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territories, including Crimea and Donbass.

China has not publicly condemned a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said, because it "understands Russia's claims of a defensive war against NATO encroachment" and believes that "the root causes are more complex" than Western leaders say.

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this statement,  suggested  "focusing" on the results of the recent meeting between the President of China and the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow.

The Chinese ambassador also asked European leaders if Europe has come too close to the United States after their deep rapprochement on the issue of support for Ukraine, and does this create a risk that Europe will not act in its own interests towards China?

“The EU claims to be an independent center of power in the world, just like the United States, just like China,” Kong said. “So why should the Union listen to the US all the time?”

Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen responded to this, The New York Times did not specify.

Fu Kong also explained that Xi Jinping has not yet had a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because he is “very busy” and there is no great need for this, since China and Ukraine are in contact “at a lower level.”

“The fact that President Xi is not talking to Zelensky does not mean that China is on the side of Russia on the Ukrainian issue,” Kong said.

Recall that in March 2023, Politico journalists  learned  from customs data and information from the Ukrainian military that Russia imports components from China for the production of body armor, which are then used in the war in Ukraine.

The New York Times reported that China, through a network of small companies and intermediaries, supplied drones to Russia worth a total of $12 million.

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