Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published a message to Chinese communist dictator Xi Jinping on Tuesday in which he encouraged the Chinese government to use its significant diplomatic leverage over Russia to end the latter’s years-long invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky made the call in a social media statement responding to a message from Xi congratulating Ukraine on its independence day. He published the letter from Xi, in Chinese text, along with his response. The message was part of a series of similar responses to other world leaders, including many from outside of Europe including conservative Presidents Keiko Fujimori of Peru and Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic. Zelensky also responded to messages congratulating his country from the leaders of governments such as those of Israel and Sri Lanka.
In his response to Xi, however, Zelensky made a more direct appeal for Chinese action to end the violence his citizens have been living through since 2022. It is Zelensky’s most overt call for China to turn against the interests of its close ally Russia and support Ukraine in years, since an attempt to reach out to Beijing in 2022 led to no substantive changes in the war theater.
“I thank Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his congratulations to Ukraine on our most important national holiday. Independence is an unconditional value for Ukrainians, as it is for all other sovereign nations,” Zelensky wrote in his message on Tuesday. “We appreciate that over these 35 years, we have built relations with China based on mutual respect and full recognition of the values of our peoples.”
“We count on further cooperation and on China playing a strong diplomatic role in bringing Russia’s war against our country to an end. Peace can be our shared achievement,” he suggested.
The South China Morning Post translated part of Xi’s letter, which emphasized the largely friendly relationship between Ukraine and China prior to the Russian invasion. Ukraine is a member of China’s predatory “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), its infrastructure debt trap scheme, and has repeatedly welcomed business with Chinese corporations.
“China-Ukraine friendship serves the fundamental interests of both peoples,” Xi reportedly wrote to Zelensky this week. “China is ready to work with Ukraine to continue upholding the principles of mutual respect and equality and mutual benefit to promote the long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.”
Zelensky’s message to Xi follows signals out of Kyiv this month that Ukraine will seek to more directly involve China in the conflict with Russia, convincing it to help Ukraine achieve its interest of ending the war. As the Morning Post noted, as recently as this Sunday, Ukrainian ambassador to Beijing Olexander Nechytaylo published an article calling for China to play “a more active role” in conflict resolution between Russia and Ukraine and, in particular, preserving trade in the war-torn Black Sea region.
“Ukraine is convinced that China has sufficient international weight, political authority, and diplomatic tools to make its contribution to bringing peace closer, more tangible,” Nechytaylo reportedly wrote. “We are open to a substantive dialogue with China on ways to achieve a just peace. Such a dialogue must be based on realities, international law, and respect for the legitimate interests of the Ukrainian people.”
In early August, Zelensky reportedly gathered Ukrainian ambassadors to Asia for a meeting in which he emphasized the importance of strengthening economic ties with East Asia, particularly China and Japan. According to the Ukrainian state outlet Ukrinform, Zelensky encouraged his ambassadors to find a path for Ukraine to be present at venues such as the Shangri-La Dialogue and to engage Chinese counterparts more directly.
“Zelensky urged Ukrainian diplomats to find new ways to strengthen relations with both India and China,” Ukrinform shared. “He said that Ukraine had to find a practical way to strengthen its relations with India and seek dialogue with China. He added that if Ukraine did not want China to support only Russia, it would have to build those relationships despite the significant challenges involved.”
Zelensky has personally attempted repeatedly to engage Xi and convince him to leverage China’s influence to discourage the ongoing invasion, with no material success. In 2022, months into the invasion, Zelensky told the South China Morning Post that China, “as a big and powerful country, could come down and sort of put the Russian Federation [in] a certain place.”
“I would like to talk directly. I had one conversation with [President] Xi Jinping that was a year ago,” Zelensky said at the time. “Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression on February 24, we have asked officially for a conversation, but we (haven’t had) any conversation with China even though I believe that would be helpful.”
If China helped end the war, Zelensky added, its companies could benefit from reconstruction contracts.
Zelensky and Xi held one phone conversation in April 2023 in which Xi reportedly demanded that Zelensky embrace “dialogue,” China’s standard position on the war. The conversation did not result in any meaningful change in the relationship between Beijing and Kyiv.
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