{"id":157493,"date":"2023-05-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=918297"},"modified":"2023-05-15T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T00:00:00","slug":"top-chinese-envoy-to-visit-ukraine-russia-on-peace-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2023\/05\/15\/top-chinese-envoy-to-visit-ukraine-russia-on-peace-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Chinese envoy to visit Ukraine, Russia on \u2018peace\u2019 mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MediaIntel.Asia\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Open this photo in gallery: Visitors to a reception for Europe Day at the Delegation of the European Union to China stand near a board supporting Ukraine, in Beijing on May 9.Ng Han Guan\/The Associated Press
\nA top Chinese envoy will begin a tour of Ukraine, Russia and other European countries on Monday in a trip Beijing says is aimed at discussing a \u201cpolitical settlement\u201d to the Ukraine crisis.
\nLi Hui, China\u2019s special representative for Eurasian affairs and former ambassador to Russia, will also visit Poland, France, Germany on the multi-day trip, the foreign ministry announced Friday without providing a detailed schedule.
\nHe is the most senior Chinese official to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, and his trip could coincide with the beginnings of a long anticipated counteroffensive by Ukraine to recapture territory seized by Russia.
\nLi will visit Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Ukrainian government official told Reuters on Monday, declining to provide further details. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the specifics Li\u2019s itinerary would be released in due course.
\nThe visit comes weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in late April, in the first talks between the two leaders since the war began.
\nZelensky described the call as \u201clong and meaningful\u201d on Twitter, while Xi said China would focus on promoting peace, although Beijing\u2019s proposals to end the conflict have been met with some skepticism in the West given its ties with Russia.
\nHowever, several European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, have urged Xi to speak with Zelensky and play a more active role in restraining Moscow\u2019s actions during a string of visits to the Chinese capital from March onwards.
\nSince February, Beijing has heavily promoted a 12-point proposal for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
\nBut the plan, launched on the first anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion, was largely a reiteration of China\u2019s previous lines on the war. It urged both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation and warned against the use of nuclear weapons.
\n\u201cThis visit is a very good (opportunity) to promote communication and dialogue with all parties, and make clear all parties\u2019 bottom lines,\u201d said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization thinktank in Beijing.
\nKyiv has ruled out the idea of any territorial concessions to Russia and has said it wants every inch of its land back. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and since last year has claimed to have annexed four other Ukrainian regions, which Moscow now calls Russian land.
\nThroughout the war, China has refrained from condemning its strategic ally Moscow or referring to its actions as an \u201cinvasion\u201d, leading to criticism from European countries and the United States which have questioned China\u2019s credibility as a potential broker in the conflict.
\nWhatever message Li delivers will be carefully scrutinized given the unease among Western nations over Xi\u2019s meeting with his \u201cdear friend\u201d Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, and the two countries\u2019 commitment to a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership less than three weeks before the invasion, which Moscow called a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery: Visitors to a reception for Europe Day at the Delegation of the European Union to China stand near a board supporting Ukraine, in Beijing on May 9.Ng Han Guan\/The Associated Press
\nA top Chinese envoy will begin a tour of Uk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,144,194,249,465,1242,484],"tags":[3472,10342,3942,10352,7654,3571,10315,2240,7655,10349,10413,10351,2972],"class_list":["post-157493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beijing","category-china","category-news-chinese-law","category-russia","category-social-media","category-twitter","category-united-states","tag-chinese","tag-embassy","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-media-intelligence","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-peace","tag-putin","tag-war","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157494,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157493\/revisions\/157494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}