China Newsbase
Fast, easy search of the China news that matters
The China News Database was last updated at 01:50PM on November 9, 2023.
Database searches currently perform best when a tag filter is used. We suggest trying out these tags: Xi Jinping, Russia, Taiwan, COVID-19, climate change, electric vehicles, gaming, IPOs, Belt and Road Initiative.
You may also filter by articles featured in our daily members-only Access newsletter, to get a curated overview of the top news and analysis about Chinese politics, business, and society. Select one option:
- All top news and analysis
- The China Project top news and analysis
- Top news and analysis from elsewhere — Stories in the “News briefing,” previously known as “Recommended links”
This product is in beta testing and development. If you would like to share feedback on the content or user experience, please email editors@thechinaproject.com.
35 articles matching the search query.
Chinese companies that aid Russia could face U.S. repercussions, commerce secretary warns.
Chinese companies may be subject to secondary sanctions if they defy U.S. restrictions against exporting to Russia, said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to the New York Times.
China to provide Ukraine humanitarian aid, praises Russia ties
Cautious diplomacy is now implausible diplomacy, yet China presses on. China continues to tiptoe an impossible diplomatic line by simultaneously offering support to both Ukraine and Russia. On Monday, China’s Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 promised humanitarian aid to Ukraine from China’s Red Cross, and further offered Chinese assistance to provide “necessary mediation.” Meanwhile, he asked Western nations to understand and respect Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” and censored all mention of the war from Winter Paralympics coverage.
TikTok Suspends Livestreaming in Russia on ‘Fake News’ Law
TikTok is suspending livestreaming in Russia over newly passed laws that specifically silence public disapproval of the Ukraine invasion.
Opinion | Taking Dictators Literally and Seriously
“Take autocrats literally and seriously when they tell us what they intend to do,” writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Vladimir Putin warned of his attack on Ukraine as early as 2007, and even wrote about Russia’s sovereignty claim on the region in an essay last summer, yet the West was quick to dismiss his words as a fever dream.
“In Beijing, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 speaks of Taiwan in much the same way Mr. Putin does Ukraine… Beijing’s strong-arm repression of Hong Kong demonstrates the Xi regime is ready to trample treaties and violate its economic self-interest in pursuit of a nationalist agenda that fulfills Mr. Xi’s ambition. China’s concentration camps in Xinjiang reveal a regime immune to global embarrassment. How convincing is the argument that Mr. Xi would never be so foolish as to invade Taiwan?”
In fast-changing Europe, rage against Russia fuels suspicion of China
Outrage over Ukraine may harden Europe against China, after Russia’s attack lit a fire under European nations’ security and defense. “I think it’s going to have repercussions beyond this question of how to deal with Russia. It is definitely going to shape our policies towards China as well,” said Pascal Abb, a Chinese foreign policy professor at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.
Germany, in particular, made a shocking departure from traditional policy in a single hour: Chancellor Olaf Scholz committed to a $111 billion defense fund, dropped opposition to arming Ukraine, and supported bans on Russia’s financial assets. “Multiple European academics and researchers said they had been contacted this week by Chinese counterparts — startled by Germany’s policy shift — to ask ‘what next?’” writes journalist Finbarr Bermingham on Twitter.
China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank freezes Russia lending
China’s banks are torn on Russia. Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), of which China is the largest shareholder and wields 26.5% of the bank’s voting power, has put a hold on Russian lending. However, state-backed China Development Bank and Exim Bank, both of which hold much more value in Russian assets, have not announced any action yet.
“If you’re looking for China’s signs of distancing itself from Russia, look at where real money is,” scholar Jakub Jakóbowski said on Twitter.
Key Asian nations join global backlash against Russia, with an eye toward China
Asian countries are joining the stand against Russia, with Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea tightening their spigots on the flow of goods into the nation. Mounting regional pressures from China have urged some, particularly Japan, to “defend the principle of state sovereignty and prohibitions against large powers changing the borders of smaller states,” per the Washington Post.
China’s Calculus on the Invasion of Ukraine
Beijing is trying “to straddle…an unstraddleable divide” in Ukraine, wedged between its strategic partnership with Russia, its principles of non-interference and state sovereignty, and its relations with Western nations, according to the Carnegie Endowment’s Paul Haenle, among other expert contributors to a ChinaFile conversation. Recent signals that Beijing will back Russia suggest a risky bet that its partnership with Moscow will outweigh the fallout.
“The fact that China clearly supports Russia would not preclude them taking a mediation role. Beijing typically does this precisely when it’s sympathetic to one side but thinks they’ve gone too far,” the scholar Andrew Small writes on Twitter.
China Asked Russia to Delay Ukraine War Until After Olympics, U.S. Officials Say
Xi might have had an inkling on Russia’s attack on Ukraine, according to a new Western intelligence report per the New York Times. Some Western officials have expressed doubt that Russia’s attack occurred after the Winter Olympics by mere coincidence. However, “it is not clear what assurances, if any, Russian officials gave Chinese officials about the invasion.”
When asked by the Times, Liú Péngyǔ 刘鹏宇, the Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington, said that the claims are “speculation without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China.”
Ukraine: Did China Have a Clue? • Stimson Center
Did Xi know about Putin’s attack on Ukraine? “Despite the impression that Putin intentionally created, a careful examination of the events suggests that China was, in fact, played,” writes Yun Sun, a prominent analyst on Chinese foreign policy. “The beauty of Putin’s play is that China cannot rebuff and clarify they didn’t know.”
Don’t mention the invasion: China spins Russia’s war in Ukraine
What China is saying about Ukraine, in China: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is not necessarily “an invasion,” stated Huá Chūnyíng 华春莹, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, as Chinese authorities struggle to narrate the crisis at home.
China’s state broadcaster gave prominent coverage to Putin’s narrative, while the Ukraine-Russia conflict was pushed to the end of its main news program, per the Financial Times. People’s Daily put the war on the bottom of page three on Friday. A translation of Putin’s speech by a nationalistic news site went viral, with the Weibo hashtag #putin10000wordsspeechfulltext surpassing 1 billion views within 24 hours, per the New York Times. “The grand narrative of nationalism and great-power chauvinism has squeezed out their last bit of humanity,” the author of a now-deleted viral WeChat article titled “All those who cheer for war are idiots,” wrote per the New York Times. “The official media coverage on Ukraine has shifted in recent days to allow for more perspectives from Ukraine and immersive imagery of the conflict. This signals a widening space for social media discourse also,” Maria Repnikova told Bloomberg.Read our Q&A with Maria Repnikova last Friday: Maria Repnikova on Chinese soft power and Ukraine.
Chinese Embassy in Ukraine Urges Its Citizens Not to Reveal Their Identity
What China is saying about Ukraine, in Ukraine: China’s embassy in Ukraine has advised its citizens in the country not to reveal their identity, after many in Kyiv voiced fears of rising anti-Chinese sentiment among Ukrainians who believe that China supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, per What’s on Weibo.
The advice came just two days after the embassy issued a notice to its citizens in Ukraine that they should place a Chinese flag on their vehicles amid growing levels of violence across the country. There are about 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine, according to Chinese media quoting the embassy, though some claim the number hovers around 10,000.
Behind China’s Warning Against a Russian Invasion Is a Desire to Protect Ties With the U.S.
China is walking a thin line in the Ukraine crisis after Chinese authorities gave more explicit warnings against a Russian invasion of Ukraine in recent days. Despite a series of moves to strengthen ties between China and Russia, the shift in tone indicates Beijing’s desire to avoid worsening its already hostile relationship with the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
No reason for Ukraine war fears, China tells UN meeting
“No reason for concern” over Ukraine, Beijing says: At the UN Security Council on January 31, China’s envoy, Zhāng Jūn 张军, downplayed the risk of war over Ukraine, and accused “the United States of obstructing efforts to resolve the crisis through dialogue,” the South China Morning Post reports. Meanwhile, Russia and China continue to solidify ties, and when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 meet in Beijing on February 4, they “could sign more than 15 agreements…with lots of new deals being prepared in relation to natural gas,” per Reuters.
See also:
In clash with U.S. over Ukraine, Putin has a lifeline from China / NYT (paywall) Beijing throws weight behind Moscow: China-Russia weekly update / SupChina