There’s been none of the wolf warriorism we’ve become used to from Chinese diplomats as President Xi met world leaders this week. While meeting presidents Biden, Macron and Australia’s PM, Xi was all smiles; the discussion focused on climate change and food security, as well as how to prevent tensions from spilling over into war. The one exception to Xi’s more charming image seems to have been his encounter with Canada’s leader Justin Trudeau, who received a dressing down for his government leaking contents of their bilateral the day before.
But this awkward clash was the exception. And on Russia, Xi seems to have said all the right things. According to a White House readout of Xi and Biden’s three-and-a-half hour meeting on Monday, both presidents agreed that ‘a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won’.
Beijing remains one of Moscow’s few allies, and the US is clearly hoping for it to play a role in talking Putin down from the ledge of nuclear warfare, especially given Russia’s repeated defeats in Ukraine.
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