OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:15 PM – Tuesday, January 30, 2024
The Chinese Foreign Ministry was purportedly informed by the ambassador of Ukraine to Beijing that Kyiv is “committed to the one-China principle,” claiming that Taiwan is a province of China while rejecting the existence of the state of Taiwan.
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The remarks were allegedly made by Ambassador Pavlo Riabikin on Monday in a readout released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing, China.
However, some critics of China maintained on social media platforms that one cannot trust any material that is released by the Chinese government or press.
The majority of the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine have been devoted to the Ukrainian government’s attempts to overtly or subtly persuade China, a close ally of Moscow, to switch sides and back Ukraine, or at the very least assist in the reconstruction of the cities that the Russian attacks destroyed.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a worldwide debt trap scheme in which Beijing provides predatory loans to weaker nations to be used as payment for infrastructure projects by Chinese enterprises, has officially admitted Ukraine as a participant.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, has also made many attempts to build a steady line of contact with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and has reportedly persuaded him to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from continuing war tactics against Ukrainian forces.
Additionally, Ukraine has been mute for years about Beijing’s increasingly aggressive threats against Taiwan and has refused to denounce China’s many abuses of human rights on the international scene, notably the genocide of the Uyghur people, who are predominantly Muslim, and the ongoing occupation of East Turkistan.
The majority of Kiev’s attempts to court China have failed, especially due to the fact that China is believed to have strong ties with Russia. Following his indictment for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2023, Putin traveled to China for the first time, receiving a warm reception from Xi.
China has typically advocated for “peace” in Ukraine but has never denounced Russia for invading the country and has never demanded that Russia remove its soldiers.
“Ukraine attaches great importance to developing relations with China and stays committed to the one-China principle,” said Riabikin, the Ukrainian ambassador, according to Beijing.
“Ukraine is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China and push for the constant development of bilateral relations,” the Foreign Ministry continued.
The meeting took place “the same day China and Russia held their first talks of the year, in Moscow,” according to the Chinese media outlet South China Morning Post, implying that Beijing is still putting its relationship with Russia first and is unlikely to stand up for Ukraine.
In contrast to the “one-China principle,” Taiwan is an independent country that has never been ruled by a Beijing-based government and has no political links to China.
Taiwan benefits from a free and democratic government as well as autonomous institutions like the military, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy that are not under the control of Chinese communism. However, Taiwan also faces difficulties gaining worldwide recognition since China has warned that it will not uphold diplomatic ties with any government that acknowledges Taiwan’s sovereignty.
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