Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Still smarting over several countries boycotting the Winter Olympic Games (February 4-20) because of its culpability over the pandemic, and poor human rights record in Xinjiang and Tibet, China tried to salvage its global isolation on Thursday by denying the reports it had asked Russia to delay the invasion of Ukraine until after the Games.

Russia had begun Ukraine’s invasion on February 24, just four days after the Games’ closing ceremony.

Ever since China has treaded cautiously over the actions of its close ally Russia. Last month, President Xi Jinping had met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, where they agreed to pursue a “no limits” partnership.

That is why Beijing has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but has also stopped short of outright support to Moscow.

According to western media reports on Wednesday, senior Chinese officials had told their Russian counterparts not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics.

Beijing had some direct knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week.

When asked at a press briefing on Thursday, Beijing dismissed the report.

“The New York Times report is completely fake news. These kinds of diversionary, blame-shifting remarks are thoroughly despicable,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

Before the February 24 Russian invasion, China’s state-controlled media repeatedly dismissed western warnings of the imminent war as a US hype against Moscow and did not evacuate Chinese citizens from Ukraine.

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, China has been isolated globally. President Xi Jinping has not since traveled outside China for obvious reasons. President Putin was the first world leader to meet Xi in nearly two years and was a guest of honor at the Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony.

On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly adopted a resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Russia “immediately” withdraw from its neighboring country.

China was among 35 countries that abstained, while just five—Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, and Eritrea– voted against the UN resolution.