As Western sanctions on Moscow mount following its invasion of Ukraine, Chinese media tell a story to domestic readers that avoids blaming Russia and portrays sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s perspective.
Beijing has refused to support nor condemn its close ally Moscow, while blaming the US and NATO’s “eastward expansion” for worsening tensions.
It is a view that reverberates across state newspapers and television — as well as social media — in China’s tightly controlled news environment.
When Putin announced an assault on Ukraine on Feb. 24, China’s Xinhua news agency maintained it was a “military operation” and Moscow had “no intent” of occupying Ukrainian territory.
Days later, state broadcaster China Central Television echoed a false Russian claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had left Kyiv — a story quickly repeated by other domestic outlets.
Some Chinese reports also state that there has been a surge of “neo-Nazi” ideology among the Ukrainian army and people, a claim supported by Putin.
A directive to a state-affiliated outlet, circulating online last month, appeared to instruct that posts unfavorable to Russia or containing pro-Western content should not be published.
State media reports on Ukraine avoid terms like “invasion,” instead describing the situation as a “conflict” or “fighting.”
“This is not a struggle to find the right message,” said Justyna Szczudlik, China analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs.
“China purposely uses very vague language,” she said, adding that this was to reduce risks in its relations with Western nations.
Officials have also rebuffed the term “invasion” when questioned by foreign journalists — accusing them of biased reporting — while giving the contradictory statements that China respects every nation’s sovereignty, but will not take sides.
A fierce condemnation of war at the opening of the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing was not translated on Chinese TV and English Premier League matches did not air a weekend earlier due to players showing solidarity with Ukraine.
Under the barrage of China’s support, netizens have been showing sympathy for Russia.
Pro-Putin hashtags have been allowed to proliferate on China’s Sina Weibo, along with admiring comments about how daring he is and calls for Ukrainians to surrender.
In contrast, articles about state media embracing Russian propaganda were removed as “false information.”
“As with every country, China ... considers its own security interests above all else,” said Richard Ghiasy, an expert at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.
“In that security calculation, stable and predictable ties with Russia are absolutely pivotal,” he said.
Media outlets have also started explicitly pushing Russian conspiracy theories.
“There is no smoke without fire,” the Global Times wrote while repeating Russian claims that US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine were experimenting with bat coronaviruses.
It did not report comments from Washington that the allegations were “outright lies” that have been debunked.
Days before the invasion, Putin announced that Moscow recognized the independence of separatist regions Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, and later justified the assault as a defense of the self-proclaimed republics.
Chinese-language Phoenix TV showed its Russia correspondent interviewing an officer about the progress of Russia’s “demilitarization” operation.
This media line persists, despite official statements stressing the need to protect the “territorial integrity of all countries.”
As millions of refugees streamed out of war-torn Ukraine, China published an “exclusive interview” with a rebel leader in Donetsk.
In the interview with CGTN, Denis Pushilin was seen talking about “liberated areas” and claimed that the “vast majority of citizens want to be as close to Russia as possible.”
Beijing has also tried to portray itself as the measured middle voice that could help with peace efforts.
China has upheld an “independent policy on Ukraine issue [and] develops ties with all sides to inject stability into the world,” the Global Times said on Friday.
However, Ghiasy believes China sees the invasion as an act of “defense” against an encroaching NATO that would undermine Russian security interests.
“It has taken a clear stance and tinkers little with that,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS