Daily Times

BEIJING: China is closely following the latest developments in Ukraine and calls on all parties to exercise restraint and prevent the situation from getting out of control, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Thursday.

“China believes there should be mutual cooperation and sustainable security, and reasonable security concerns of all parties concerned should be respected and solved,” she said while responding to several questions during her regular briefing after Russia started a military operation against Ukraine. Hua Chunying said, “China hopes all parties don’t shut the door on peace, but continue negotiations and try to ease the situation as soon as possible.” The spokesperson’s remarks were made in response to questions on whether China saw Russia’s military operations against Ukraine as an ‘invasion’.

As several Western media journalists repeatedly brought up the questions at the media briefing and asked whether China will condemn Russia’s moves, Hua Chunying told the reporters to ask the US, which has been fanning the flames of the Ukraine issue, on how it plans to put out the fire it started. China will closely follow the situation and will not rush into a conclusion, she said. Hua Chunying asked the journalists if they also condemned the US for unfreezing $7 billion in Afghan funds held in the US, which the US plans to use for its own needs.

She termed the Ukraine issue as a very complicated and said that it has historical background and today’s situation is the result of a variety of factors. China also noticed Russia’s defense ministry’s statement in which it said the Russian Armed Forces are not carrying out missile, aviation, or artillery attacks on Ukraine’s cities. To a question about provision of military facilities to Russia, she said that as a powerful country, Russia does not need China or other countries to provide it with weapons.

Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and an independent major power, she said, adding, the Russian side formulates and implements its own diplomacy and strategy independently and autonomously, based entirely on its own judgement and national interests.

In response to whether China has any plan to increase or decrease trade with Russia and Ukraine, Hua Chunying said that China will carry out normal trade, including energy trade, with each of the two countries, in accordance with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries. About Chinese citizens currently in Ukraine, she said that they have been asked to stay home to avoid accidental injury.