For most Chinese, Ukraine’s leader Vladimir Zelensky has been cheated by the United States and will eventually be abandoned. No matter who is elected, Harris or Trump, this result will not change, writes professor Wang Wen, Dean of Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies, Renmin University of China for the 21st Annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.
As early as March 17, 2022, I mentioned in a live interview with BBC that if Ukraine is seen as a beauty, the United States is a scumbag. The scumbag encouraged the beauty to fight against Russia and promised to protect her, but the beauty was beaten up.
Now this beautiful woman has been completely disfigured, and being abandoned is the ultimate outcome. Both the United States and the European Union are making superficial appearances, maintaining a hypocritical sense of justice and morality.
In September and October of 2022, I conducted research in 20 cities in Russia and stayed in Crimea for four days, fully experiencing Russia's national resilience and economic potential. At that time, I had written over 10 articles predicting that Russia could not be defeated by the West.
It has been proven that Zelensky made a great strategic mistake by trusting the United States and stubbornly wanting to join the breach, believing that this can ensure his own security and successfully resist Russia's pre-emptive, defensive military action. Zelensky was completely wrong. A country's own security cannot rely on the commitments of other countries, and Ukraine placed its own safety on the edge of a cliff.
This principle is very simple, just like when you have a strong neighbour. What you need to do is to build a good relationship with him, instead of borrowing a gun from another strong person in the distance and making enemies with your neighbour.
The Chinese, of course, respect sovereignty and territorial integrity. At the same time, they believe that safeguarding sovereignty requires one’s own strength. History has repeatedly proven that while the principle of international sovereignty is important, it is first and foremost subject to realist power politics.
This kind of judgment and narration, which has been going on for nearly three years in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, may be enough!
If the conflict continues, it will be the people of the two countries who suffer more, especially the Ukrainian people, who are forced to take to the battlefield as cannon fodder.
Of course, people in other countries around the world will also be impacted, through food crises, financial turmoil, and so on.
The ultimate beneficiaries are American arms dealers and energy suppliers. The stock market index has shown that over the past two years, military and energy stocks in the United States have more than doubled in value. They were obviously fattened up by eating Ukrainian blood and meat!
What needs to be done now is a ceasefire! An armistice! The earlier the ceasefire, the less losses Ukraine will suffer. Over the past two years, I have repeatedly called for this and still insist on it.
From this perspective, a few weeks ago, the Chinese and Brazilian governments called on all parties concerned to abide by "three principles": cooling down the situation (namely, not spilling out of the battlefield), not escalating the war, and not fanning the flames. This is truly a well-intentioned effort.
Based on this principle, I suggest committing to ensuring the personal safety of Zelensky and all the officials of his government, increasing their willingness to participate in dialogue and negotiations, and ending the war as soon as possible.
Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the Ukraine crisis. Any genuine peace summit requires mutual recognition and equal participation from both Russia and Ukraine. In this regard, both China and Brazil are true advocates of justice.
What is most needed is to increase humanitarian assistance to relevant areas, especially to enhance the protection of civilians, particularly women and children. A larger scale humanitarian crisis should be avoided to prevent tragedies like the one in Gaza from happening again in Ukraine.
As recently reported by Ray Dalio, the global overall conflict index has reached its highest level since 1825- the highest level except for during the two world wars. The rise of this index reflects the high mortality rate, refugee influx, and still-increasing military spending caused by the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza.
As early as April 8, 2022, I wrote in the South China Morning Post that the Russia-Ukraine conflict had led to five rare "resonance" phenomena in human history: war, food shortages, natural disasters, pandemic and inflation. The world is on the eve of its most dangerous moment.
In short, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has become one of the most powerful international events since World War II. It leads us to question whether the current world continues to be divided or is reunited, whether it is closed or open, and whether it remains a continuous crisis or embraces sustainable development.
More pragmatically speaking, this is closely related to global politics, economy, energy, currency, finance, trade, food security, as well as the protection of oil and gas pipelines, submarine cables, power and energy facilities, fibre optic networks, industrial chains, and supply chains.
When it's time for us to save the world from the worst, let's start by pushing for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
