Beijing sends clear message on sanctions
More nations back China’s approach on unilateral efforts to punish Russia
One month after the Ukraine crisis broke out, China and an increasing number of like-minded nations, particularly developing countries, were voicing objection last week to unilateral sanctions by United States-led Western countries.
The reasons are clear: Such sanctions will only make the crisis last even longer, break international rules and order, worsen people’s livelihoods and aggravate the humanitarian tragedy, officials and analysts said.
One of the clear messages against these sanctions is from President Xi Jinping. He told US President Joe Biden on March 18 that sweeping and indiscriminate sanctions would only make the people suffer.
If further escalated, the sanctions could trigger serious crises in the global economy and trade, finance, energy, food, and industrial and supply chains, crippling the already languishing world economy and causing irrevocable losses, Xi said.
“China has all along opposed unilateral sanctions that have neither basis in international law nor mandate of the (United Nations) Security Council,” and “imposing sanctions is like ‘putting out fire with firewood’ and will only make things worse”, Vice-Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said at a forum on March 19.
Zhu Jiejin, a professor of global governance studies at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs, said, “The recently imposed sanctions are shaking the existing international financial order while dealing heavy blows to the already shaky recovery of the global economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The decision to partly ban Russia from SWIFT, the global messaging system for financial transactions, is “actually turning globalization into a ‘weapon’ and dampening the world’s faith in globalization’s future”, Zhu said.
“Also, maximizing sanctions to the extreme will only lead to more extreme consequences,” he said.
A joint statement issued on March 20 by the foreign ministries of China and Algeria responded to the Ukraine crisis and said both countries oppose indiscriminate application of unilateral sanctions without the support of international law.
None of the other BRICS members — Brazil, India, China and South Africa — has joined in the sanctions against fellow member Russia. G20 members such as Mexico also declined to do so.
Walter Russell Mead, a distinguished fellow at the US’ Hudson Institute think tank, said China’s basic approach — not endorsing Moscow’s moves and resisting Western efforts to punish Russia — “has garnered global support”.
In an article published in The Wall Street Journal on March 21, Mead said, “The West has never been more closely aligned,” and “It has also rarely been more alone”.
The ongoing drive for more sanctions is unlikely to achieve what the Western countries want, but could possibly worsen global inflation, said Ding Yifan, a research fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council’s Institute of World Development.
The Ukraine crisis is developing in a way that goes beyond itself with spillovers affecting the whole world, and “the momentum of world economic recovery should not be disrupted”, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on March 21.
“Unlike the sanctions leveled in recent years, this time more countries, international companies, civic groups and even international organizations joined the ranks of those imposing sanctions. By taking a side, they attempt to avoid also being sanctioned,” said Li Wei, a professor at the School of International Studies of Renmin University of China.
While China is also falling prey to the sanctions on Russia in areas such as regular bilateral trade, Washington has threatened potential “consequences” over China’s future role in the sanctions, experts noted.
When asked on March 23 about China’s role in sanctions against Russia, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned that the G7 sanctions enforcement initiative “will apply to every significant economy and the decisions that any of those economies take to try in an intentional and active way to undermine or weaken the sanctions”.
Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang said earlier in March that “threats against Chinese entities and businesses, as uttered by some US officials, are unacceptable”.
“Neither war nor sanctions can deliver peace. Wielding the baton of sanctions at Chinese companies while seeking China’s support and cooperation simply won’t work,” Qin wrote in a signed opinion piece in The Washington Post on March 15.