Commentary
Last weekend, the G20 finance ministers adjourned without a joint statement because two of them, from Russia and China, refused to condemn “in the strongest terms” Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. Beijing likewise abstained a few days earlier from a similar U.N. General Assembly resolution.
Despite widespread global support for Ukraine, the Chinese Communist Party thinks it can attract European countries that senior diplomat Wang Yi perceives as malleable: Germany, France, Italy, and Hungary. With the latter, under Viktor Orbán, Beijing is actually making inroads.
The CCP sees the war as beneficial, and as a distraction for the United States from China’s own territorial ambitions in Taiwan, the South China Sea, and northern India. A poll published by Morning Consult last week found strong beliefs among Chinese citizens that Russia’s war helps their country….