cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5291198
“Instead of taking responsibility for peace and security in the world as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in an emailed statement before departing Berlin airport on Sunday for her two-day visit to Beijing.
Vladimir “Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is a direct threat to our peace. I will also speak in Beijing about the fact that we cannot simply ignore this in our relations with China.”
The European Union is proposing to sanction several Chinese firms that it claims helped Russian companies develop attack drones that were deployed against Ukraine. Baerbock will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing to address this issue, her spokesman said. Germany’s top diplomat will also discuss the humanitarian situation in China, as well as EU tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles that were introduced in October.
Alright. I’m a huge supporter of Ukraine here. But the west has been collectively providing Ukraine with a metric fucktonne of weapons. Russia is clearly the aggressor, at fault, and fucking evil. But if we can send weapons to Ukraine, Russia acquiring weapons elsewhere is probably fair game. That doesn’t mean we can’t apply economic or political pressure.
In many ways, this war dragging on for a long time is actually in Chinese interests, as far as I can tell. It makes the west war-weary making it less likely we can sustain another conflict should China decide to engage over Taiwan or similar. And it increases Russian reliance on China in the longer term. The only thing China is likely unhappy about here is NK’s increasingly large role (moving into Russian sphere of influence).
But unless we’re willing to actually sanction China, the west will just complain and do nothing.
