Editor’s note for February 21, 2023

The last few days have not been restful for Chinese and American leaders and diplomats, despite the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday in the U.S.

Joe Biden made a surprise appearance in Kyiv yesterday, where he stood by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and assured the world that America would offer unflinching support for an independent Ukraine against Russia’s invading armies. Biden continued his tour today with another public event in Poland, sending the same message.

Meanwhile China’s top diplomat Wáng Yì 王毅 has been all over Europe, schmoozing leaders and trying to restore some positivity to Beijing’s deteriorating relationships with most European capitals. This is proving difficult for Wang: Security issues, significant European support for Uyghur rights, and China’s ongoing embrace of Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine all bedevil ties between the West and China. And the U.S. is, of course, pressuring its friends and allies to get tough on China.

Ukraine has been top of mind for most European and American officials and media this week. But Beijing is not reading the room.

In the full version of top story today on our website, Marina Rudyak of the University of Göttingen told us:

The impression that not only I have, but other analysts in Europe have, is that the Chinese leadership is still not getting the sentiments about the war, which is kind of surprising because China does have good experts on Europe…

…In the last few months, there have been Chinese delegations traveling to Europe. So the rhetoric raises the question whether the leadership in Beijing doesn’t get it, or whether they don’t care.

Beijing often makes the same complaint: That Western politicians and journalists fail to understand China; either because they are uneducated, or simply have another agenda.

And there is indeed a real mismatch of expectations and understanding. We don’t even really have the vocabulary to explain the problem.

For example: the aforementioned Wang Yi was China’s foreign minister from 2013 until 2022. But although he is no longer the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is China’s most powerful diplomat, because he is the director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.

It is entirely unsurprising that China and the West have a different view of Russia, and of the way the world should work. And this is not going to get better.

Brace yourself: 2023 is going to be interesting times, as the apocryphal Chinese curse has it.