How the War in Ukraine is Upending Chinese Foreign Policy Around the World

Had Xi Jinping known on February 4th when he last saw his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Winter Olympics in Beijing that only a month later China’s entire foreign policy strategy would be in turmoil, one imagines that he would have done more to stop the war in Ukraine.

But he didn’t, and now that war is threatening to undermine key parts of President Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative along with a number of core strategic interests. “Putin’s war of conquest risks destabilizing China’s patient efforts to transform ‘the global governance architecture and ‘rewrite the rules’,” argues Philip Golub, a professor of international relations at the American University of Paris, in a column published Monday in Le Monde Diplomatique.