Despite the ongoing Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, China has again demonstratively backed Moscow.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that China is ready to take ties with Moscow "to a higher level".

Both sides are more determined than ever to expand cooperation.

"Sino-Russian relations have withstood the recent test of the changing international situation, maintained the correct direction of progress and achieved sustained momentum," Wang Yi said, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Lavrov had traveled to China for the first time since the beginning of the war.

The official occasion was multilateral consultations on the situation in Afghanistan.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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Regarding the course of the war, the Beijing statement only said that Lavrov had informed Wang Yi about the negotiations with Ukraine and assured that Russia was ready for a de-escalation.

Even before the trip, Lavrov had praised relations with Beijing as "stronger than ever".

On Wednesday, the Russian embassy circulated a video on the Chinese network Weibo in which Lavrov told Wang Yi: "Together with you and other like-minded people, we will build a multipolar, just and democratic world order."

Beijing probably surprised at Western unity

The heads of the European Union are likely to have followed the meeting with particular attention, because the EU-China summit, which has been postponed several times, will take place via video link on Friday.

According to Brussels, the situation in Ukraine is at the top of the agenda, which is of course presented differently in Beijing.

China must fear that its alliance with Russia will strain economically important relations with Europe and give a boost to those European voices urgently calling for a reduction in economic dependence on China.

As a precaution, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has sought talks with leading European business representatives over the past few days and urged them to exert their influence on politics.

All European efforts to persuade Xi Jinping to moderate the Russian president or even to condemn the Russian invasion have come to nothing.

Efforts are now focused on urging China to at least play a more active role on humanitarian issues.

So far, Beijing has only made the equivalent of 700,000 euros available for this.



Meanwhile, nothing has changed in the pro-Russian rhetoric of the Chinese state media.

In a broad campaign, the propaganda apparatus is once again accusing the United States and NATO of causing the war.

The Chinese military's daily newspaper, PLA Daily, has adopted the Russian propaganda narrative that the US is helping Ukraine to develop biological warfare agents.

Beijing seems to be irritated by the new transatlantic unity.

State television is appealing to Europeans not to “repeat the mistake of letting the US stab them in the back”.

It is not in Europe's interest to support American sanctions against Russia.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies seem to be trying not to have any violations detected.