Chinese State Media Anchor Suggests Beijing Fighting Russia Equivalent to Fighting a Friend

China's state broadcaster CGTN anchor Liu Xin attends an interview at the CCTV headquarters in Beijing, China on May 30, 2019. WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images

In order to protect itself, the Chinese regime has refused to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a star Chinese state media TV anchor in Beijing has told her viewers.

Liu Xin, China’s most well-known English host and anchor of state-run English TV channel CGTN, was commenting on the virtual talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on March 19, saying that Biden’s request to Xi was like saying, “Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?”

In the virtual talks, Biden warned Xi of consequences if China provides support to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Liu implied that Russia was China’s friend, and accused the United States of planning to attack China in the near future if it follows the U.S. suggestion to intervene in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Arms Control Department of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly re-posted Liu’s tweet on its Chinese social media platform Weibo, and commented that Liu was speaking “the truth.”

The department’s repost attracted over 7,000 “likes” and was reposted by nearly 2,000 times in two days. Some Chinese netizens critical of the communist regime quipped that what Liu didn’t say explicitly in her post was that the Chinese regime won’t stop its support of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

“In my eyes, Liu wrote out the real thoughts that the Chinese regime has for the Russia-Ukraine war. The foreign affairs ministry’s department comment of ‘the truth’ doesn’t mean Liu wrote out the true status, but the true mindset of the regime,” Tang Jingyuan, U.S.-based China affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times on March 21.

In the past weeks, Beijing has labeled its position on the war in Ukraine as neutral, refusing to criticize Russia and referring to the invasion turned war as a “conflict.”

Tang pointed out that the Chinese regime has provided support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in his invasion of Ukraine. To sell its position to the Chinese people, the regime in Beijing has crafted a narrative which it disseminates through its propaganda system in an attempt to control the prevailing view of the Chinese people on the war.

“Beijing has its agenda [to support Russia’s invasion]. It wants to replace the United States to be the world leader. It treats the U.S. as its biggest enemy, but the U.S. only treats the Chinese regime as a strategic competitor,” Tang said.

Over the past few years, Beijing has expressed its plan to replace the U.S. dollar as world’s reserve currency, control the global internet, and seek a new socialist politically democratic global order at the expense of all others. Tang explained that China treats the United States as an enemy because the U.S. and other western countries are protecting the current liberal democratic world order.

At War With the US

The Chinese propaganda system uses its politically-approved experts to tell the Chinese people that the United States is an enemy to China, and that the Russia-Ukraine war is a war between the United States and Russia/China.

Former state-run Global Times Chief Editor Hu Xijin posted on Weibo on March 20 that China had to support Russia’s invasion, revealing that Beijing actually intends to start a war for Taiwan or the South China Sea, for which it will need Moscow’s support.

“Once China fights the U.S. at the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, with Russia as a super nuclear force who is hostile to the U.S., it will be more difficult for the U.S. to threaten China,” Hu wrote.

The Taiwan Strait is the water separating China and Taiwan. The Chinese regime claims the liberal democratic island as its own, and threatens to invade Taiwan and “unify” it by force, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.

In the South China Sea, which is a key global shipping waterway, there are rich oil and gas deposits, and other resources. There, the Chinese regime continues to engage in sovereignty disputes with over one dozen countries despite its claims being turned down by a 2016 international court ruling.

An H-6 bomber of Chinese PLA Air Force flies near a Taiwan F-16 in this Feb. 10, 2020 handout photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of National Defense. In a statement, the ministry said Chinese J-11 fighters and H-6 bombers flew into the Bashi Channel to the south of Taiwan, then out into the Pacific before heading back to base via the Miyako Strait. Taiwan Ministry of National Defense/Handout via Reuters

Hu said that China must stand “back to back” with Russia as a strategic partner, including for affairs with Japan in the east, India in the west, and other countries in Central Asia.

John Ross, a British Marxist and blogger who works for several Chinese state-run media and a state-run think tank as a senior researcher in Beijing, published an opinion article on state-run magazine Observer on March 15, saying: “In fact, Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine is equivalent to Russia helping China defend against U.S. aggression on China’s western defense line.”

The article attracted attention on Weibo, where Chinese netizens shared, commented, and liked it. But Tang has questioned how many of these netizens are part of the regime’s 50-cent army, who earned 50 cents every time they share a pro-regime text on social media platforms.

“Just as Russia invaded Ukraine, the Chinese regime wants to invade Taiwan and the South China Sea. Taiwan and countries in the South China Sea ask for protection from the U.S.. These are some examples why China treats the U.S. as an enemy,” Tang said.