Moscow and Beijing gave alternative accounts of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) birthday call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as both sides seek to manage perceptions of their relationship in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin readout on Wednesday said the two men, both 69, discussed increasing economic cooperation, trade and military-technical ties between China and Russia.
Moscow’s version also implied the Chinese leader endorsed Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine, saying Xi noted the “legitimacy of Russia’s actions in protecting its fundamental national interests in the face of security challenges created by external forces.”
By contrast, state broadcaster China Central Television said Xi “actively promoted world peace and the stability of the global economic order” during the call.
Xi pushed all parties to find “a proper settlement to the Ukraine crisis in a responsible manner,” the report added, making no mention of military ties or increasing trade links.
Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow and chair of Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the Kremlin’s readout of the call was geared toward a domestic audience.
Putin is trying to project strength at home, after being forced to narrow his war goals to the east by his failure to quickly take Kyiv and other key cities.
China’s version was clearly more mindful of the West, where its war response is under great scrutiny, Gabuev said.
US President Joe Biden in March warned China of the “implications and consequences” if Beijing backs Moscow over the invasion, either by providing military support or helping it avoid sweeping economic sanctions imposed by the US, the EU and others.
While there has been no sign of Beijing helping Moscow in either way, it has offered rhetorical support by repeating Russian conspiracy theories — such as the false claim that the US runs weapons biolabs in Ukraine — and diplomatically through Xi’s continued contact with Putin.
Asked about the apparent discrepancy in the readouts, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文彬) yesterday said that China and Russia support each other on “core interests and issues of major concern.”
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS