Kremlin must be squeezed to stop war, Xi urged to tell Putin

The German chancellor spoke with the Chinese leader during his controversial trip to Beijing

OLAF SCHOLZ, the German chancellor, yesterday urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to use Beijing’s influence on Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine.

“I told President [Xi] that it is important for China to use its influence on Russia,” Mr Scholz said after meeting the Chinese leader in Beijing. “Russia must immediately stop the attacks under which the civilian population is suffering daily and withdraw from Ukraine.”

Mr Scholz became the first leader of a G7 country to visit China since the pandemic began, during a widely criticised trip that came after Mr Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month.

In his remarks to the chancellor, Mr Xi stuck closely to a well-worn script, saying it was important for China and Germany “to work together in times of change and instability and contribute more to global peace and development”. During lunch with Mr Scholz, Mr Xi said it was easier to destroy political trust than rebuild it, according to a readout of the meeting from the staterun Xinhua News agency.

On Ukraine, the international community should “create conditions for the resumption of negotiations [and] jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons”, Mr Xi said, adding that China and Germany should respect each other and look out for each other’s core interests.

Diplomatic ties between Beijing and the West have soured significantly in recent years. China has engaged in trade spats and blocked access to investigations into the origins of coronavirus. Beijing has provided Moscow with diplomatic backing by repeatedly calling for peace talks while refusing to support measures at the United Nations criticising Russia’s invasion. It has also accused the US and Nato of provoking the attack and scathingly criticised economic sanctions on Russia.

Mr Scholz yesterday referred directly to the conflict that has created millions of refugees and upended world food and energy markets, saying: “We come together at a time of great tension.”

Mr Xi’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric and military build-up has also raised worries over the risk of conflict. But dealing with Beijing remains a balancing act as China remains the world’s second-largest economy.

Mr Scholz also stressed that “any change to the status quo of Taiwan can only take place through mutual agreement and peacefully”, after meeting with Li Keqiang, China’s second highest-ranking official.

Meanwhile yesterday, G7 diplomats met in Germany to rally support for Ukraine and coalesced around suspicion of China’s increasing assertiveness amid a wide range of global crises.

Speaking at the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’S foreign policy chief, said China is “becoming much more assertive”. “It is clear that we want to reduce our dependencies, we want to address our vulnerabilities and strengthen our resilience,” he said. “But at the time being, many member states have a strong economic relationship with China and I don’t think we can put China and Russia on the same level.”

Those comments get at the heart of why Mr Scholz was criticised so widely for his solo visit to Beijing, which experts said showed that Europe is divided on how best to respond to an increasingly assertive China. Many in Europe believe a joint trip with Emmanuel Macron, the French President, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, would have sent a much stronger message to Beijing.