China Messaging On Ukraine Shows Support For Russia’s Invasion: U.S. State Department

China’s uncritical amplification of Kremlin views on Moscow’s invasion of the Ukraine demonstrates Beijing’s support for Russia in the war, the U.S. State Department said in a statement today.

“Government officials and state and party media from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) routinely amplify Kremlin propaganda, conspiracy theories, and disinformation,” the statement said.

“This amplification rationalizes President Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war against Ukraine while undermining trust in the United States and other countries, democratic institutions, and independent media,” the State Department said.

“Using social media platforms banned within the PRC, PRC and CCP media and PRC ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats convey biased Kremlin talking points to audiences in multiple languages and regions across the world. Meanwhile, within the PRC, CCP and state-backed entities censor credible reporting on Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine while blaming NATO and the United States for Putin’s brutal war of choice,” the statement said.

“PRC and CCP media and officials’ further uncritical amplification of Moscow’s messaging demonstrates Beijing’s support for Russia,” even though China hasn’t offered its explicit public endorsement or condemnation of Russia’s invasion, the State Department said. Click here for the full statement.

Sizing up China’s views in a new Foreign Affairs article today, Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of International Relations at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, wrote: “Russia’s war in Ukraine has produced a strategic predicament for China. On the one hand, the conflict has disrupted billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese trade, heightened tensions in East Asia, and deepened political polarization within China by dividing people into pro- and anti-Russia camps,” Yan said.

“On the other, China blames the United States for provoking Russia with its support for NATO expansion and worries that Washington will seek to prolong the conflict in Ukraine in order to bog down Russia. Beijing sees little to gain from joining the international chorus condemning Moscow.”

The extended war in Ukraine is playing out against a backdrop of pressure on China’s economy at home from costly Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and other major cities.

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