Bulletin N° 35 mai 2023 China and the War in Ukraine: About the Chinese Peace Plan
On April 26, an exchange of more than an hour between Chinese Presidents Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Zelinsky, at the initiative of the Ukrainian President, was described by the latter as "long and significant", and resulted in the appointment of a Ukrainian ambassador to China,
while China has decided to send a delegation to Ukraine to deepen what it calls: “the Ukrainian crisis” and not the war in Ukraine. Moscow "took note" of this initiative to " strive to establish a negotiation process" , while the United States described this initiative as "a good thing" ."China's Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis."
Starting from the analysis that we have made of the imperialist war in Ukraine, it is necessary to shed light on the nature of the peace plans and initiatives formulated. In reality, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, was only the official declaration of a war that began years ago, between the United States, NATO and the European Union. on the one hand, who use Ukraine as their base of intervention and on the other hand capitalist Russia, which is an ally of China in the great dispute between China and the United States for supremacy in the imperialist system.
While this war mows down thousands of young Russians and Ukrainians sent to the slaughterhouse, the capitalists on both sides with their governments maintain, although to a limited extent compared to the situation before February 2022, a stable cooperation, including commercially understood.
So, for example, Russia continues to sell uranium to the United States and France for their nuclear facilities. Indeed, it covers 20% of the needs of the 92 American nuclear reactors, while France received in 2022 153 tons of Russian uranium, covering 15% of its needs. France says it is ready to participate in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Hungary in collaboration with Rosatom. Russian company Gazprom announced that it had sent 42.4 million cubic meters of gas to the EU via pipelines from war-torn Ukraine. At the same time, in the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, the tankers of the American company Chevron continue to load the oil which it extracts in Kazakhstan and which arrives there by an oil pipeline of 1. 500 km crossing the territories of Kazakhstan and Russia. It is through this pipeline that two-thirds of the oil extracted in Kazakhstan is transported to the world market.
In addition, Russian raw materials and goods continue to flow through third countries to the so-called West. On the other hand, products made in the West continue to be sold to Russia through the so-called Global South, which is now the name given to countries that do not respect the anti-Russian embargo. , including China, India, Turkey and other countries. Thus, in the world, the energy and armament companies in particular are seeing their profits increase while the Russian oligarchs have never been so rich. Thus, on both sides of the front of this imperialist war, the capitalists enrich themselves and watch over their interests!
It is in this context that we must judge the initiatives and peace plans aimed at formalizing the interests of each of the imperialist poles currently in open conflict. The Chinese plan is not the first peace plan. In 2014 and 2015, the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements were signed, which we now know that none of the signatory parties concerned intended to respect. In fact the ruling forces in Ukraine with the support of the United States, NATO and the EU needed time to get themselves in order and under the control of US imperialism and the European Union to prepare their adhesion to the military and economic structures anchoring it to the imperialist bloc led by the United States. On their side the forces of capitalism and Russian state also needed time to regain political control of the regions of Donbass which had revolted against the fascistic Ukrainian power whose leaders claimed communism. When the different parties to the conflict considered that the objectives they had set themselves had been achieved and that the balance of power was now in their favour, the Minsk agreements were formally abolished. The ambiguity of the content of the Minsk agreements regarding the future of Donbass enabled the protagonists of the conflict to get rid of it easily. When the different parties to the conflict considered that the objectives they had set themselves had been achieved and that the balance of power was now in their favour, the Minsk agreements were formally abolished. The ambiguity of the content of the Minsk agreements regarding the future of Donbass enabled the protagonists of the conflict to get rid of it easily. When the different parties to the conflict considered that the objectives they had set themselves had been achieved and that the balance of power was now in their favour, the Minsk agreements were formally abolished. The ambiguity of the content of the Minsk agreements regarding the future of Donbass enabled the protagonists of the conflict to get rid of it easily.
The Chinese peace plan presents the same ambiguities as the Minsk agreements. If it makes a reference to: "respect for the national sovereignty of all countries" , and "the independence and territorial integrity of all States",he is careful not to specify the nature of the Ukrainian territories annexed by the Russian Federation. In fact, under the cover of a peace proposal, China intends in the context of a continuation of the conflict to show relative neutrality without being excluded from a settlement, even if it is provisional, on which it intends to influence like a rising imperialist pole in the face of in the USA. It can therefore neither drop Russia nor appear to be foreign to the conflict and therefore to its resolution and place itself in the force-sharing system within a recomposed Europe. Moreover, the Chinese proposal, which emphasizes post-war reconstruction, is in fact the
“When those above speak of peace, the little people know that it is war. When those above curse the war, the roadmaps are already filled” , wrote B. Brecht.
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/fra/zxxx/202302/t20230224_11030718.html
2 https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/europe/1784-ukraine-la-logic-d- escalation-military-in-progress-it-is-that-of-the-clashes-au-sein-de-l-imperialisme
https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/publications/documents/1934-un-document -to-better-understand-the-reasons-and-consequences-of-the-war-in-ukraine
3 https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/monde/2244-visite-de -xi-in-moscow-stronger-economic-ties-in-a-multipolar-capitalist-world
4 "Exports of nuclear fuel and technologies from Russia increased by more than 20% last year" https://forbes.ua/ru
5"France bought 153 tons of enriched uranium from Russia for its nuclear power plants in 2022", https://tass.ru
6 https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2023/04/27 /hongrie-la-france-prete-a-participer-au-projet-de-centrale-nucleaire-du-russe-rosatom_6171229_3210.html
7 https://www.latribune.fr/economie/international/les-oligarques-russes -have-increased-their-fortune-grace-the-war-959833.html
8The Constitution of the Russian Federation with the changes of 2022, State Duma website, http://duma.gov.ru