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Officials in China have expressed dismay at Russia’s actions in Ukraine, including Vladimir Putin’s failure to disclose his invasion plans, and condemned the “irresponsibility” of proposed nuclear threats ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia. Putin did not tell his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping “the truth”, the Financial Times reported, citing a Chinese official, who said the two leaders hailed a “borderless” alliance between Moscow and Beijing when they met just 20 days before To The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. “If he had told us, we wouldn’t have been in such an awkward position,” the official said. Xi was caught off guard by the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia still describes as a “special military operation,” according to four people briefed on the meeting between the two leaders in February. China resents that this non-disclosure by Moscow threatened the safety of thousands of Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine at the time the war broke out. The official was quoted as saying by the FT that Beijing “had more than 6,000 Chinese nationals living in Ukraine and some of them died during the evacuation [although] we can’t make that public.” The Russian president admitted last month that he did not inform Mr Xi’s “close friend” of plans to invade Ukraine in February, but insisted the strength of their relationship was “unprecedented”. Mr Putin will be absent from the G20 world leaders’ summit in tropical Bali this week, instead being represented by his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. And also, speaking on the eve of the G20 gathering, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang underlined the “irresponsibility” of nuclear threats as it appeared during another summit in Cambodia. The comments are a sign that Beijing is uncomfortable with strategic nuclear partner Russia’s rhetoric on nuclear issues, a top US official said on Monday. Li attended the East Asia Summit on Sunday, where he “spoke quite extensively about China’s policy towards Ukraine,” a senior US administration official said as he briefed reporters ahead of the summit between Biden and Xi on Monday. The top Chinese official “clearly emphasized sovereignty, the irresponsibility of nuclear threats, [and] the need to ensure that nuclear weapons are not used in the way that some have suggested,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mr Putin last met his Chinese counterpart during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders’ summit in Samarkand in September this year. In the last eight months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been accused of irresponsible statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons. The US official said there was “definitely some discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia,” despite official cooperation with Moscow. “I think it’s also undeniable that China is probably surprised and even a little embarrassed by the conduct of Russian military operations,” the official said. The G20 summit in Indonesia – one of the largest gatherings of world leaders since the start of the pandemic – will unfold in the shadow of geopolitical tensions sparked by the eight-month war in Ukraine that has torpedoed trade in oil, gas and grain. Sustainable energy, a renewed focus on climate crisis policies, digital transformation and health are among the topics to be discussed.
