New York Daily News

Biden on China peace plan: You gotta be kiddin’

- BY SHANT SHAHRIGIAN

China’s proposal for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine met with scoffs from the White House over the weekend.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s applauding it, so how could it be any good?” President Biden said of the plan in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I’ve seen nothing in the plan to indicate there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia.”

On Friday, the one-year anniversar­y of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China called for a ceasefire.

Its 12-point proposal does not call for Russian troops to leave Ukraine and appears to criticize Western sanctions against Russia, according to BBC News.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (with Biden bottom right) wants to discuss it with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the spring, though Chinese authoritie­s are yet to comment publicly on the request for a summit.

“It’s an important signal that they are preparing to take part in this theme,” Zelenskyy said Friday. “So far, I see this as a signal — I don’t know what will happen later.”

The White House voiced a tougher stance toward China. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have increased since the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spying balloon this month.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan accused China of “one-sided diplomacy.”

“China put forward this plan without having had a single conversati­on since the war began between President Xi and President Zelenskyy,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In recent days, the State Department and the Pentagon have warned China against sending military help to Russia.

Biden recently pointed out to his Chinese counterpar­t that hundreds of U.S. companies ditched Russia after the invasion, the commander-in-chief said.

“I said, ‘If you are engaged in the same kind of brutality by supporting the same kind of brutality that’s going on, you may face the same consequenc­e,’ ” Biden said.

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