Backing Russia Will Be Too Costly for Beijing: Ambassador

Chinese leader Xi Jinping applauds at the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 5, 2022. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

SYDNEY—Backing Russia in the Ukraine War would be costly for Beijing, according to the recently appointed Ukrainian ambassador to Australia.

Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who recently arrived in the country, told audience members of the Western Heritage Australia organisation in late March it was clear the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was “fence-sitting” regarding publicly condemning Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The top diplomat said it was not worth the CCP’s effort to back Russia given the size of its economy.

“This is not an equal relationship. Russia is just one-eighth of the economy of China. If you look at Russia, really at its core, in economic terms, the GDP of Russia is equal to the GDP of the Netherlands,” he said. “If it was not for the nuclear weapons, it (Russia) would be of very little significance or influence.”

Myroshnychenko also said that China was highly integrated into the world economy and questioned whether it would really benefit the CCP to “disrupt trade relations with Western countries.”

“The dependence of China on America is much greater than the dependence of China on Russia,” he said. “Of course, we understand that by buying Russian oil and gas they will be able to support Putin’s regime, or trading in Yuan when he is not able to trade in dollars [due to sanctions].”

“Now Russia totally depends on China, and it will be up to China how they deal with it.”

U.S., European, and Australian leaders have ramped up pressure on Beijing not to offer Russia a lifeline amid a wave of economic sanctions on the country’s oligarchs, state-owned enterprises, and military organisations.

Beijing will suffer “major reputational damage” for its refusal to explicitly denounce Moscow, warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Myroshnychenko’s comments come just days before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Australian Parliament requesting the federal government send Bushmaster military vehicles to support the war effort.

“We have to stop any intention from Russia to bypass sanctions. Most of all, we have to keep the heroes fighting these people armed,” he said, according to Sky News Australia.

Meanwhile, photos and videos have emerged of dead bodies lying in the streets of the Ukrainian city of Bucha, near the capital Kyiv.

“Bucha massacre proves that Russian hatred towards Ukrainians is beyond anything Europe has seen since WWII,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.