Cuban-American political analyst and former diplomat Luis Zúñiga strongly questioned the change in position taken by China towards its trade partner Ukraine, after the Russian invasion of that Eastern European country.
According to the activist who spent 19 years in Cuban prisons, “Ukraine maintained that level of diplomatic and commercial relations with China and, in addition, had facilitated multiple economic investments from that country, which meant that everything was normal and affective between the two.” .
However, according to Zúñiga, “at the moment that Putin’s Russia launched its armed invasion against Ukraine, China’s attitude radically changed to implicitly support the aggressor.”
China has refused to qualify the Russian aggression against Ukraine as an armed invasion and has adhered to the definition of “a special operation”, with which Vladimir Putin presents his military action against Ukrainian territory to the world.
Zúñiga pointed out that the Chinese vote in the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council has been on the side of Russia and against Ukraine.
“Even the Chinese regime has refused to publicly reject the military and economic aid that Vladimir Putin has requested to finance his war of aggression against Ukraine,” he commented.
Diplomatic relations between countries implicitly entail the recognition of the territorial integrity of their counterpart and respect for their rights in the international context, a conduct that, in accordance with Zúñiga’s approach, has not been seen on the part of China.
He also said that China’s “betrayal” of “good relations with Ukraine” and its refusal to support kyiv’s rights as an independent and sovereign nation in international organizations should “serve as a lesson and experience” for those nations that maintain diplomatic or commercial relations with the Asian giant.
Ukraine has had a multimillion-dollar bilateral trade with the Chinese regime and highlights the sale in 2013 of three million hectares of arable land in the Dnipropetrovsk region, for China to produce cereals and raise pigs for its internal consumption. Likewise, Ukraine sends the Chinese 30% of the corn consumed by the eastern nation.
The genocide that Russia is carrying out in Ukraine has been condemned from all corners of the world. The city of Mariupol was reduced to ashes and rubble by Putin’s forces.
“The photos and videos from international news agencies are horrible. It is very difficult to understand, let alone accept, that the Chinese regime is supporting this monstrosity,” the analyst commented.
He added that “this war of Russian imperialist aggression has unequivocally exposed Chinese purposes and interests in the world”, for which he predicted that “the vision of China will change significantly and its international relations will be seriously damaged”.
Finally, he said, “it’s a pity that Ukraine had to suffer this tragedy so that the world knows the Chinese regime better.”
