The last time Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, interacted, they celebrated 30 years of diplomatic ties, praising their “deepening political mutual trust” and their people’s “deep friendship”.
That was in January 2022. Less than two months later, Russia, one of China’s closest partners, invaded Ukraine. Since then, Mr. Xi had not spoken to Mr. Zelensky until Wednesday, despite the Ukrainian leader’s repeated pleas.
The “healthy and stable” relationship they touted seemed a distant memory, and the question of when the pair would speak reflected the precarious state of relations between their countries amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Before the war, trade and cultural exchanges had grown. Now both parties are juggling goals that are sometimes contradictory.
Ukraine had courted China for its potential to rein in Russian aggression. But it was well aware of Beijing’s shown unwillingness to do so, and of concerns that it might, in effect, arm Russia. Public opinion in Ukraine towards China had soured.
China, for its part, has wanted to maintain its professed neutrality in the conflict. But it also portrayed the war as a proxy struggle over the future world order, with the United States on one side and itself and Russia on the other. Kiev’s embrace of the West puts it on the wrong side of that divide.
There is also the reality that Ukraine, as a country under attack, does not have the same economic appeal to China as before.
