China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

[19] Quoting the Russian parliament, The New York Times reported that in September 2022 Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the third highest-ranking Politburo Standing Committee member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), blamed NATO for expanding next to Russia and told a group of Russian legislators that "we fully understand the necessity of all the measures taken by Russia" and that it was placed in an "impossible situation" on the Ukrainian issue.

[20] The Wall Street Journal reported that to advance its own interests, Russia has repeatedly leaked information without Chinese knowledge or ahead of China's announcements and decisions.

[21] According to U.S. intercepts of Russian intelligence from the 2022–2023 Pentagon document leaks, Russia believed that China had approved sending "lethal aid" disguised as civilian items.

[25][26] In February 2024, at the 60th Munich Security Conference, Wang Yi discussed peace prospects with Ukraine's foreign minister and stated that China will not "sell lethal weapons in conflict zones".

[27] In April 2024, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) reported that a sanctioned Russian ship transferring weapons from North Korea to Russia was moored at a Chinese shipyard in Zhejiang.

[30] Later that month, Xi Jinping and American President Joe Biden held a two-hour long meeting over video in which the conflict in Ukraine featured significantly.

The American White House told the press after the call that Biden had warned Xi of "consequences if China provides material support to Russia".

[34] During the Xi Jinping visit to France in May 2024, he said to Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Beijing did not intend to supply weapons to Moscow and that it was ready to look into the issue of dual-use materials that enabled Russia's war effort.

[48] During the 2023 Belarus-China summit, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Xi jointly stated "deep concern about the development of the armed conflict in the European region and extreme interest in the soonest possible establishment of peace in Ukraine[.

]"[49] In June 2023, China's envoy to Ukraine Li Hui urged all parties to respect territorial integrity, stop arming the battlefield, and ensure the safety of nuclear facilities.

[6] In June 2024, Former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that because of the fundamental lack of trust between the United States and China, and their allies, "it's so difficult to see how either side can claim legitimacy to initiate some kind of peace summit.

"[56] On 14 June 2024, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Geng Shuang, called "on the parties to the conflict to demonstrate political will, come together, and start peace talks as soon as possible to achieve a ceasefire and halt military actions".

[62] On the day Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine, the Communist Youth League of China posted a rendition of the Soviet patriotic song "Katyusha" in Mandarin on its official bilibili account.

During the broadcast, the chairman of the International Paralympic Committee Andrew Parsons mentioned the conflict in a speech made in English, harshly condemning the invasion and calling for peace.

[73] On 5 April, CCTV-4 relayed the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's claim that the Bucha massacre is fake news, spread by Ukraine and the West to slander Russia.

The sources declined to discuss any evidence in detail except to say that the assistance stopped short of evading wholesale the sanctions "the US and its allies imposed" after Russia invaded Ukraine.

[77][78] The New York Times subsequently reported that Poly Technologies sent sufficient quantities of gunpower to the Barnaul Cartridge Plant to make 80 million rounds of ammunition.

A subsidiary of Russian state-owned company Almaz-Ante, IEMZ Kupol, said it was able to produce drones with assistance from local specialists, including a newly developed model, at scale at a Chinese factory for deployment in the war.

[100] By December 2024, China's export curbs on key drone components going to the United States and Europe had affected Ukraine's defense efforts, according to Bloomberg News.

[64][113][114][14] According to Voice of America, a large volume of controversial commentary surfaced on Chinese social media in the early stages of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

[115] Coupled with the fact that online discussions are strictly monitored and censored by the state, many believe that Chinese public opinion on the matter is divided, with opposing factions.

[126][127] The circulation of the translated comments spread to Ukraine, inciting widespread anti-Chinese sentiment and causing Chinese people living there to face local hostility.

[135] In September 2023, opera singer Wang Fang sparked a diplomatic row after singing the Soviet war song "Katyusha" inside the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol where hundreds were killed in 2022.

Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said that "the performance of the song "Katyusha" by Chinese 'opera singer' Wang Fan on the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater, where the Russian army killed more than 600 innocent people, is an example of complete moral degradation".

[145] In May 2023, European Union (EU) officials reportedly criticized China's peace plan as an attempt at "freezing" the conflict in place and splitting the West in pushing Ukraine cease-fire.

[166] In June 2022, the United States Department of Commerce placed five Hong Kong companies on the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List for providing support to Russia's military.

[169][171] In January 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Spacety China, also known as Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd., for providing satellite imagery to the Wagner Group.

[176][177] In July 2023, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence published a report stating that the Chinese government is assisting Russia to evade sanctions and providing it with dual-use technology.

[187] Another Razumkov Centre poll conducted from 19 to 25 January 2024, had 72.5% of Ukrainian respondents expressing a negative view of China, which was only less than 3 other countries: Iran (82%), Belarus (87%), and Russia (95%).

Érick Duchesne of the Université Laval has argued that "strategic ambiguity on the part of China could have a beneficial effect and help untie the Gordian knot of the crisis" and that it would be a "a serious mistake" for NATO countries to oppose Chinese mediation.