Xi Jinping is not going to Moscow to make peace.
His meetings with President Putin on Monday and Tuesday and his virtual talks with President Zelensky are clearly intended to look like an effort to end the war in Ukraine. And indeed the
Chinese leader would surely prefer the conflict to be over than to see it continue. Already, in just over a year, it has damaged China’s interests in various ways: by reinvigorating Nato, by undermining Beijing’s efforts to mend diplomatic ties with Europe, by weakening demand in crucial export markets, by galvanising the rearmament of Japan, by prompting the United States to rush weapons to Taiwan.
But Xi has a more urgent priority: his aim is to ensure that Russia does not lose.
