For hundreds of Chinese students in Kyiv, the sound of Russian artillery is not the only thing that scares them.
A Chinese student at Kyiv University, who gave only his surname, Wang, said: “I was scared every time I had to go to the bunker because the locals were very hostile. “The window panes rattle every time something hits them,” she says, and is better off finding safety with local Ukrainians. “But that has become very annoying now.”
Beijing refuses criticize Russia Because of the invasion of Ukraine and the wave of mocking Ukraine and praising Russian military might on Chinese social media, China is giving a bad name to China in Ukraine, and threatening to derail what Beijing calls ” strategic partnership relations”.
Following a phone call between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday night, China’s foreign ministry said Ukraine “expects China’s mediation efforts to cease fire”. But Beijing also urged Ukraine to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals in the country.
Since last Friday, an increasing number of Chinese living in Ukraine have reported incidents of hostilities from Ukrainians, and some say they have even been attacked.
In one videotapes announced by state broadcaster CGTN, a Chinese student in Ukraine identified as Xu Xianghui said she was followed on the street and then threatened in a supermarket. Wang said an acquaintance of hers who works at a Chinese restaurant was “called out” for buying cigarettes over the weekend.
“This is the consequence of not resisting the invasion!” An internet user named Tianya wrote in a comment on Xu Xianghui’s video on Weibo, a small Chinese microblogging site. Another commenter wrote: “Stop insulting Ukrainians, we here Ukraine are paying the price.”
The reports of hostility towards the Chinese come after jokes insulting Ukraine surfaced on Chinese social media last week. “If some Ukrainian beauty loses her home and needs a home, maybe I can help!” indicate a post.
Others say Ukraine “deserves” an invasion because it has sided with the West, while others hail Russia’s attack on the country as an example of a heroic act by a great power. countries, which they hoped would soon be repeated in China’s attack on Taiwan.
After a string of incidents, Beijing is now rushing to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine. The first 600 evacuees were brought to Moldova on Monday, according to state media. Wang was among 1,000 others waiting to leave for Slovakia and Poland on Tuesday.
The Chinese embassy in Kyiv last week initially advised Chinese citizens in Ukraine to keep themselves safe by prominently flying the Chinese flag. But it adjusted its guidelines over the weekend and told fellow countrymen to keep a low profile. “Do not reveal your identity or display identification marks at will,” the embassy said in a notice on WeChat early Saturday.
One internet user on a Chinese social networking site suggested: “It’s safer now to pretend you’re Japanese.
But observers say that even if China is able to safely return its citizens home, it could still suffer lasting damage to its standing in Ukraine and the region from underground. Russia’s war support.
“We fully understand that China is somehow supporting Russia. Yurii Poita, an expert on Ukraine-China relations at the Center for Military Studies, Conversion and Disarmament in Kyiv, said that they do not officially say they are supporting Russian aggression, but in their rhetoric, they do.
“People here now don’t have time to read much about this because they are fighting. But they will consider these cruel jokes from the Chinese side and the behavior of the Chinese government, and after this war, Ukraine clearly understands who our real friends are,” he said. “In the future, cooperation with China may be limited.”
Such views undermine the relationship that China has elevated to the status of a “strategic partner” and has hoped to use to expand its economic pivot to Europe, with bilateral trade growing to 18, $9 billion last year. “There has been widespread optimism about the future of relations,” said Zhao Mingwen, a former Chinese diplomat and expert on China’s relations with Eastern Europe at a think-tank backed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. our system. “Bilateral trade hit its highest level since 1991 last year and is still growing by 40 per cent,” he said.
Since 2013, Chinese state-owned companies have invested in pig farming, feed production and related export infrastructure in Ukraine, and Ukraine has become the country’s largest source of maize imports. this.
Elizabeth Wishnick, an analyst specializing in China-Ukraine relations at CNA, a Washington think-tank, said: “Ukraine is in the middle of a corridor into Europe, a major country interested in getting into Europe. cooperation with China. “Now China’s relationship with Ukraine will change.”
