The Chinese Foreign Ministry declared Beijing supportive of “all efforts towards a peaceful settlement in Ukraine” on Monday and emphasized support for dialogue following Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s visit to Alaska on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump.
Trump is expected to meet in Washington on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several other European leaders in pursuit of a sustained peace agreement to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022. Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula and later fueling conflict between Kyiv and “pro-Russia separatists” in the Donbass region. Putin claimed to annex the Donbass in September 2022.
Trump has prioritized taking on a leadership role in ending the Russian invasion in his second term in office. During the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the Chinese Communist Party made multiple, aggressive bids to mediate between the parties. Russia is one of China’s closest allies, while Ukraine prior to the war enjoyed friendly relations with China and continues to this day to form part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure debt trap scheme.
Its friendly relations with both countries have not made China influential in the conflict. The Communist Party published an alleged blueprint to end the war in 2023, which vaguely called for both sides to “calm down as soon as possible,” that was mostly ignored by either party. A tour by Chinese diplomats of Russia, Ukraine, and Ukraine’s European partners shortly after that publication yielded no material changes on the ground. Kyiv has grown increasingly acrimonious towards China as evidence surfaced of Beijing supplying Russia with equipment and troops, while Russia has more prominently promoted its partnership with North Korea in the war than that with China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday that Beijing hopes all relevant parties participate in the Trump-led peace talks.
“We expect that all relevant parties and stakeholders will participate in the peace talks and in shaping the conditions for lasting peace [in Ukraine], and that the agreement reached will be acceptable to all sides,” Mao said, according to the Ukrainian state news outlet Ukrinform.
Mao praised Trump’s meeting with Putin, stating breifly, “It’s good to see Russia and the U.S. engage each other, improve ties, and promote the process for a political settlement of the crisis.”
Mao also received a question directly asking if China, given its alleged support for any efforts towards peace, would offer Ukraine security guarantees to prevent another outbreak of violence by Russia. She refused to answer the question.
“China supports all efforts toward a peaceful settlement of the ‘Ukrainian crisis’ and is pleased to see continued engagement and improved relations between the United States and Russia, as well as efforts that contribute to a political settlement of the ‘crisis’,” she stated.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry notably omitted these comments from its transcript of Mao’s briefing on Monday, though China’s state propaganda newspaper the Global Times did report her remarks on potential Chinese security guarantees. The Times paraphrased Mao saying that China would continue to be supportive “in its own way,” an apparent rejection of a security role in the dispute.
In a separate article on Monday, the Global Times appeared to attempt to give China credit for Trump’s peacemaking actions, recalling the irrelevant 2023 Chinese peace proposal. The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the newspaper claimed, “once again confirms a lesson repeatedly proven by history: Dialogue and negotiation are the only way out of a crisis.”
“This is also China’s consistent principle and position. As early as February 2023, China made this point clear in ‘China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,’ stressing that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis,” the Global Times declared.
The “China’s Position” white paper did not offer any concrete steps or help in establishing any “dialogue and negotiation.”
“Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis. All efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be encouraged and supported,” the paper read, without elaborating.
Both Ukraine and Russia ignored the white paper. The only nation to celebrate the Chinese peace proposal as meaningful and actionable was the socialist government of Brazil, which has also attempted unsuccessfully to insert itself in the Ukraine conflict. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has limited his involvement in the conflict after multiple personal disputes with Zelensky.
In a separate commentary on Sunday, citing Chinese regime-approved “experts,” the Global Times played down concerns of Chinese irrelevance by claiming that it was western Europe, instead, that faced being cut out of the mediation. Europe will be represented at the White House talks on Monday by European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni of Britain and Italy, respectively. China will not be represented at the meeting.
“Europe… has been trying to sway Trump but finds itself increasingly powerless as the Trump administration does not see it as an equal counterpart,” the Global Times assessed.
“Europe is desperately trying to influence Trump but feels deeply powerless,” one Chinese regime-approved “expert” posited. “With no real military strength or control over nuclear weapons, Europe lacks leverage, leaving it increasingly voiceless in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
“Critically, Europe has no strategic plan, relying solely on arming Ukraine to prolong the war as its only means to counter Russia, while offering no substantial peace proposals,” the expert added.
“Europe needs to wake up,” another expert added. “Now if it can’t join the negotiation table, it should at least avoid becoming a ‘dish on the menu.’”
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