China criticized the U.S. for attempting to throw “mud” on President Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow this week to promote peace in Ukraine to keep the war going and escalate tension in hopes to leave Russia in shambles. 

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the U.S. “rejects any effort that is conducive to easing the situation” in Ukraine because it always seeks an escalation while using Ukraine as a “pawn to weaken Russia.”

“The U.S. wants to punish Russia in a ruthless and uncompromising way,” the professor said.

Xi was in Moscow for a three-day visit that started on Monday and the Ukraine War is expected to be one of their top discussions. Beijing’s position has been neutral, but it has drawn criticism from the West for refusing to sanction Russia and criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade. 

Xi called Putin a “good, old friend.”

The U.S. and West views China’s budding relationship with Russia with suspicion and said it is clear that any peace deal that would emerge would heavily favor Moscow. Analysts say the U.S. is trying to get ahead of any potential breakthrough by criticizing any deal early on to lay the propaganda groundwork.

“Bad mouthing China’s role in promoting peace in the Ukraine crisis is because China’s possible efforts would interrupt the U.S.’s long-term plan to weaken Russia and control Europe,” Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the paper. “Also, China’s role in promoting peace talks also shows the country’s rising influence as a major power, a development that the U.S. cannot accept.”

Part of China’s proposal involves a cease-fire and says security of the region should not be achieved by “strengthening or expanding military blocs,” and warned against taking a “Cold War mentality.”

President Joe Biden told ABC News in an interview that the “idea that China is going to be negotiating the outcome of a war that’s a totally unjust war for Ukraine is just not rational.”

He told the outlet, “If Putin is applauding it, so how could it be good?”

“I’ve seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia if the Chinese plan were followed,” he said.

Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said he is convinced that Russia must either surrender or withdraw its troops to implement the peace plan, Ukrayinska Pravda reported. 

TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal had forecast when the Ukraine War began a year ago that Ukraine would not defeat Russia and that a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow should have been arranged by NATO and the U.S. before Russia invaded. Yet, after the war began, we have also noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has continually said Russian forces must completely exit the 20 percent of the country they now occupy if there is any chance for peace.

The prospects of a decisive Ukrainian victory are fading and The Asia Times, reported that the “entire army that NATO trained between 2014 and 2022 in preparation for a Russian attack is dead, and recruits are being thrown into battle lines with three weeks of training.” 

And we have reported extensively on China’s close ties with Russia and the effort by the Biden administration to counter their relationship. (See “CHINA’S XI ACCUSES U.S. OF CONTAINMENT STRATEGY IN RARE PUBLIC REBUKE” 14 Mar 2023, “RUSSIA, CHINA HOLD KEY MEETING AMID UKRAINE WAR SIGNAL MUTUAL GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS AND CLOSE TIES” 28 Feb 2023, and “CHINA’S CEASEFIRE PITCH IN UKRAINE DENOUNCED BY THE WEST AS PRO-RUSSIAN SABOTAGE” 28 Feb 2023.)

The new Russian/China strategic partnership which Beijing says is at a “historic high” is a major geopolitical challenge to NATO, the U.S. and its allies, yet it is being underplayed by the mainstream media. 

As reported by the Russian press on Monday, the two nations are uniting to counter “damaging acts of hegemony, domination, and bullying, by the United States”.

As President Xi said, “China and Russia have found a right path of state-to-state interactions. This is essential for the relationship to stand the test of changing international circumstances, a lesson borne out by both history and reality.”