China special envoy to visit Ukraine, Russia

China’s special representative on Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, will visit Ukraine, Russia and several European countries next week as part of Beijing’s bid to act as a middleman in the war in Ukraine in spite of concerns over its neutrality, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Li, who was China’s ambassador to Moscow for a decade until 2019, will also visit France, Germany and Poland to “have communications on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing. Li reportedly will be the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit Ukraine since the war started.

“This visit by the Chinese representative is a testament to Chinese efforts to promote peace talks and our firm commitment to peace,” Wang added.

In spite of being Moscow’s top ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to position Beijing as a peace broker between Ukraine and Russia in recent months, introducing a 12-point peace plan as a basis for negotiations.

But the EU and NATO have been critical of Beijing’s attempts to pose as a middleman, raising doubts over China’s ability to be a neutral intermediary. In March, a POLITICO investigation found that several Chinese companies, including one with ties to the government, had sent assault rifles, drone parts and body armor to Russian entities.

China’s Xi, who visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in late March, had his first telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 26. In the call, Xi reassured Zelenskyy that Beijing would not add “fuel to the fire” of the war, signaling that China would not provide direct military assistance to Russia.

Zelenskyy described their conversation as “long and meaningful” but stressed there could be “no peace at the expense of territorial compromises” and called for the restoration of Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” as a precondition for talks.