Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing does not want to see a Russian loss in Ukraine because it fears the United States would then shift its whole focus to Beijing, according to several people familiar with the exchange.
The comment, to the EU’s Kaja Kallas, would confirm what many in Brussels believe to be Beijing’s position but jar with China’s public utterances. The foreign minstry regularly says China is “not a party” to the war. Some EU officials involved were surprised by the frankness of Wang’s remarks.
Wang is said to have rejected, however, the accusation that China was materially supporting Russia’s war effort, financially or militarily, insisting that if it was doing so, the conflict would have ended long ago.
During a marathon four-hour debate on a wide range of geopolitical and commercial grievances, Wang was said to have given Kallas – the former Estonian prime minister who only late last year took up her role as the bloc’s de facto foreign affairs chief – several “history lessons and lectures”.
A soldier of Ukraine’s 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade prepares to fires a rocket launcher toward Russian positions at the front line in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Thursday. Photo: AP
Some EU officials felt he was giving her a lesson in realpolitik, part of which focused on Beijing’s belief that Washington will soon turn its full attention eastward, two officials said.
PersonNPlusOne on July 4th, 2025 at 00:23 UTC »
Anybody with even a basic understanding of geopolitics knew this a long time ago. A Russian defeat in Ukraine would mean an end of Putin, possibility of a Russian collapse similar to Soviet Union, China will never allow that to happen, as that would open up their northern flanks.
tresslessone on July 3rd, 2025 at 21:54 UTC »
The mistaken assumption being that the current US administration actually cares about Ukraine. The other mistaken assumption being that Europe isn’t about to go balls to the wall on defence.
Clarinetaphoner on July 3rd, 2025 at 20:47 UTC »
Chinese FM Wang Yi told EU leaders, including the bloc's top diplomat, that the PRC cannot afford a Russian loss in Ukraine because it would mean, in Beijing's view, that the US would thereafter turn its full attention to strategic competition with China.
SCMP scooped the minister's remarks and noted that they surprised multiple EU attendees, who long expected that the PRC wants the US to remain embroiled in the Ukraine War but had not heard Chinese officials say as much publicly or even privately.
Speaking personally as a US-based political scientist, this news will come as no surprise to the Trump Administration. In fact, IMO they could and perhaps will use this article as fodder to cite when they consider limiting additional military support to Kyiv.