Sanctions ‘drag down’ global economy: Xi Jinping

The Chinese President has frustrated a joint effort by the leaders of France and Germany to stop the war being waged by Putin.

The three-way summit between Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz on Tuesday night. Picture: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping has frustrated a joint effort by the leaders of France and Germany to stop the war his “best friend” Russian leader Vladimir Putin is waging in Ukraine.

Mr Xi told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that sanctions on Russia would “drag down” the global economy, while again refusing to condemn Mr Putin’s invasion.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo supported much of Beijing’s position in his first interview on the war, warning sanctions “are not the best solution to resolve the problem” as “people and civilians will be the victims”.

Jokowi told Nikkei Asia he ­opposed calls to exclude Russia from the G20, which Indonesia is chairing this year, saying the group is the “premier (gathering for) economic co-operation” and not a political venue.

Sticking to Indonesia’s decades-old policy of being non-aligned, Jokowi refused to criticise Russia directly.

“Ukraine and Russia are friends of Indonesia,” he said, urging the two sides to “listen to each other”.

China’s leader attempted to strike a similar neutral position in his video summit with Mr Macron and Mr Scholz, even as Beijing and Moscow’s propaganda machines intensified their co-ordinated disinformation campaign.

The Tuesday evening hook-up followed a diplomatic flurry from Europe, the US, Australia and others, pressuring China to do more to defuse the humanitarian disaster.

Mr Xi said the situation in Ukraine was “worrying”, called for “maximum restraint” and said “China deeply deplores the ­renewed war in the European continent”, according to a transcript released by Beijing.

Despite growing international pressure, China’s leader again ­refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion, which began weeks after Mr Xi and Mr Putin signed a “no limits” partnership in Beijing.

Mr Xi has spoken to Mr Putin since the invasion began, but he has had no communication with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In his meeting with Mr Macron and Mr Scholz, China’s leader said “the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken ­seriously”, a formulation Beijing has used for weeks.

Some observers said they ­detected a softening of China’s support for Russia in the readout of the exchange.

That was soon undercut by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who used his pulpit in Beijing to support a Russian propaganda effort to justify the ­invasion of its neighbour.

The Xi administration spokesman began his daily press conference late on Tuesday by pushing a debunked conspiracy about America using Ukraine as host for “biological military activities”.

“Russia has found during its military operations that the US uses these facilities to conduct bio-military plans,” Mr Zhao said, ­repeating a discredited claim made by Russian propaganda.

China’s closely monitored ­internet has been saturated for weeks with news stories and videos that originated in Russia’s propaganda system and are now being recycled with Beijing’s support. Comments on China’s highly curated internet cheer on “Putin the Great” and declaim Ukrainian “fascists”, while communist party-backed media say America is the “culprit” of the war.

Jakub Jakobowski, a senior fellow at Warsaw’s OSW China Program, said China and Russia were bound by the “genuine conviction” of their two strongmen leaders.

“They both believe that the West is falling. That it’s in a constant crisis. That gives them a chance to change the status quo,” Mr Jakobowski said.