China has offered assurances to the European Union that it will pursue peace in Ukraine, as it has resisted pressure from the group to take a tougher line on Russia. At the first China-EU summit in two years, Prime Minister Li Keqiang told EU leaders Beijing would push for peace in “its own way”, while President Xi Jinping, who has worked closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he hopes the EU will take an “independent” approach, in a nod to Europe’s close ties with the United States. The EU told Beijing during a virtual summit that it would not allow Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said leaders on both sides were “clearly exchanging views” on many issues, but hoped that China would use its influence as a major power and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Nations to persuade Russia to stop fighting. “We call on China to help end the war in Ukraine. “China can not turn a blind eye to Russia’s violation of international law,” European Council President Charles Michel told a news conference with von der Leyen after the first summit since December 30, 2020. “Any attempt to circumvent sanctions or provide assistance to Russia will prolong the war,” he said. China has forged closer security and economic ties with Russia and has refused to condemn what Russia has called a “special military operation” in Ukraine or to call it an invasion. Beijing has repeatedly criticized what it calls illegal and unilateral Western sanctions. Several weeks before the February 24 invasion, China and Russia declared a strategic partnership “without limits.” Xi told EU leaders that the main cause of the crisis in Ukraine “was regional security tensions in Europe” and that “the fundamental solution was to address legitimate security concerns of all parties involved”, according to state-run Global Times. Li said China has always sought peace and promoted negotiations and was willing to continue to play a constructive role with the international community, state-run CCTV reported. Ahead of the meeting, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned that China “deplores the resolution of problems through sanctions and is even more opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-term jurisdiction that are not based on international law.” Zao said that when it comes to Ukraine, Beijing will not be forced to “choose a side or adopt a simplistic approach of friend or foe.” “In particular, we must resist the thought of the Cold War and the bloc confrontation.” He also presented the US as an attacker. “As the culprit and main instigator of the crisis in Ukraine, the United States has led NATO to participate in five rounds of eastward expansion in the last two decades since 1999,” he said, adding that NATO membership had almost doubled from 16 to 30 countries and pushed “Russia to the wall step by step”. Michel and von der Leyen described the tone of the summit as “open and honest”. China worries that the EU is taking slogans from the US and taking a tougher line on foreign policy. In 2019, the EU abruptly changed from its usual mild diplomatic language to branding China a systemic adversary. The EU has also been involved with the US and the UK in imposing sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and repression in Hong Kong. Beijing reacted by freezing the implementation of an EU-China investment agreement already negotiated. He also suspended imports from Lithuania after Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Vilnius, angering Beijing, which claims the democratically governed island is its own.
