Don’t blame Moscow for air disaster, says Xi Jinping

CHINA has called for Western nations to stop instantly blaming Russia for the MH17 shooting.

CHINA has called for Western nations to stop instantly blaming Russia for the MH17 shooting and urged global authorities to hold a “fair and objective” investigation into the crash.

President Xi Jinping said the incident was a tragedy but the Chinese government last night had not yet revealed whether it would back the Australian-led sanctions that were due to be voted on by the UN Security Council early today.

One Chinese citizen was on board MH17.

Mr Xi said China supported a “fair and objective” investigation into the crash by aviation authorities to determine the events leading up to the shooting.

“We feel consternation over the Malaysian plane that fell in Ukrainian territory and express our condolences to the victims and solidarity with their relatives,” Mr Xi said.

China is considered an ally of Russia and relations between the two countries have been strengthened in the past three months after a new diplomatic framework was finalised.

The two nations have frequently voted in an alliance on the UNSC and paired up to vote against proposed sanctions on Syria.

China’s UN envoy Liu Jieyi last week told the Security Council meeting that China did not want to “jump to conclusions” and there must be an independent investigation.

The Global Times, a highly nationalistic tabloid closely linked to the ruling Communist Party, yesterday warned Western world leaders to
stop automatically blaming Russia.

Ching Academy of Social Sciences Gao Cheng said the reaction of Australia and the US was making the MH17 crash a “political tool”, which would not help diplomatic relations between Russia and the rest of the world.