By PTI
SINGAPORE: As the West condemns Russia, President Vladimir Putin has vocal supporters in China, where the ruling Communist Party tells its people they are fellow targets of US-led harassment.
“If Russia is destroyed, we will be next. This is for sure,” said Wang Yongchun, a retiree in Beijing.
“The United States wants to dominate the world.”
Such comments reflect the stance of a ruling party that is the closest thing Putin has to a major ally: The war should stop but the United States is to blame.
President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticising Moscow.
The government has offered to act as mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia.
Ruling party control of all Chinese media and intensive internet censorship make it hard to gauge public opinion.
But what the party allows online and requires media to publish make clear what it wants the public to think.
Media outlets were told last week to post only pro-Russian content and to censor anti-Russian or pro-Western views, according to a copy of instructions posted on the social media account of the newspaper Beijing News.
The post was later deleted.
In a live broadcast of the Winter Paralympics opening ceremony in Beijing on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV did not translate portions of remarks by the head of the International Paralympic Committee in which he expressed his horror about the war.
Online and in social media, expressions of sympathy for Ukraine and support for Russia appear but not.
“When a war begins, is it not the children of ordinary people who serve as cannon fodder?” said a post signed Da Ke Ming Yi on the Weibo social media platform.
“Those who died were the children of ordinary people.”
A letter signed by five professors from prominent universities that criticised Russia for attacking a weaker neighbor appeared briefly on social media before being deleted.
“We stand against unjust wars,” said the academics from schools including Tsinghua University in Beijing, alma mater of many ruling party leaders.
Comments posted by nationalists criticised the professors for failing to stick to the ruling party’s official position of neutrality.
The ruling party has spent decades using school textbooks and the entirely state-controlled media to nurture a sense of nationalist grievance.
It accuses the United States of trying to block China’s rise to its rightful position of global leadership.
State media repeat Beijing’s position that the United States and its European allies are to blame for the Ukraine war because they failed to respond to Russian concerns that its democratic neighbor should be barred from joining NATO, the Western military alliance.
That echoes Chinese complaints that Washington and its allies are interfering in its domestic affairs and issues of national sovereignty, including its claim over Taiwan, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and in Xinjiang, the far-western region where China has been accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs.
Russia’s attack, as a historical event, “is not a good one,” but “people think the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is because the United States stirred up trouble,” said Zheng Bowen, a 38-year-old engineer.
The state-run newspaper Capital News exhorted the public to line up with the ruling party: “The nation’s attitude is our attitude.”
“China has always upheld a fair and responsible attitude, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and ease the situation, and return to dialogue and negotiation,” it said.
However, the newspaper appeared to support Putin’s demand that Ukraine become a neutral buffer between Russia and Europe and give up the possibility of NATO membership.
“Ultimately, Ukraine should be a bridge between East and West, rather than a frontier of confrontation between major powers,” the Capital News said.
Comments online have called for China to support Russia by purchasing its exports of oil, gas and other goods.
“Let the Russian Embassy sell their goods on livestream. Let’s show them China’s buying power,” said a comment signed Bao Zou Guang Xiao Pang on Weibo.
It received 42,000 likes.
A separate comment advocating that China maintain normal trade with Russia, an implicit rejection of sanctions, received nearly 80,000 likes.
Social media platforms have urged users to act responsibly and say they have removed thousands of postings about the attack on Ukraine.
Douyin, a short-video service operated by the Chinese owner of TikTok, said it deleted more than 3,500 videos and 12,100 comments due to “vulgar, war belittling, sensationalist and unfriendly comments.”
The popular WeChat message service also complained about “vulgar posts” that it said have a “negative impact on cyberspace.”
It said some users “took the opportunity to publish bad information about international current affairs,” including comments belittling the war such as crass jokes about “gaining course credits by going to Ukraine and fighting in the war” and asking “Ukrainian beauties to come to China,” the platform said.
WeChat’s post was later shared by a unit of China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China.
Weibo said it removed more than 4,000 posts that were vulgar and ridiculed war.
It said more than 10,000 accounts were closed.
“Peaceful environments do not come easily,” the company said in a social media post.
It called on users to “maintain an objective and rational attitude” and take part in discussion “in a reasonable manner.”
China on Saturday hiked its annual defence budget by 7.1 per cent to USD 230 billion from last year’s USD 209 billion, three times that of India’s military spending.
The Chinese government has proposed the defence budget for the fiscal year 2022 at 1.45 trillion yuan (USD 230 billion), a 7.1 per cent year on year increase, according to the draft budget proposals presented by Premier Li Keqiang to the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s parliament on Saturday.
China’s hike in defence spending comes amid the People’s Liberation Army’s growing incidents of muscle-flexing in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
In his work report presented to the NPC, Premier Li called for deepening comprehensive combat readiness from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
He said the PLA needs to carry out military struggles in a resolute and flexible manner to defend the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests.
China’s defence budget, which doesn’t factor in the expenditure of much of its rapid modernisation of the navy, including the building of new aircraft carriers, air force and missile systems, is over three times that of India’s defence budget of 5.25 lakh crore (about USD 70 billion) for 2022.
Besides the defence budget, China has a separate internal security budget which often surpasses the defence spending.
China which continues to be the largest standing army despite downsizing its troops to two million from the earlier 2.3 million in 2017 is the second-biggest spender on defence after the US whose defence budget was over USD 600 billion.
Last year, China’s defence spending for the first time crossed USD 200 billion.
In 2021, the defence budget grew by 6.8 per cent to USD 209 billion.
The defence spending increased over the years as the all-around development of China’s military became the focus of President Xi Jinping ever since taking over power in 2012.
Xi, 68, who heads the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) besides the military and Presidency, unlike his predecessors is set to continue in power, perhaps for life after completing his 10-year tenure this year as he is conferred the title of “core leader” like the Party founder Mao Zedong.
Xi has also carried out extensive reforms of the military including downsizing of the army and enhancing the role of the navy and air force as Beijing set its sights on global expansion with military bases in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
China has also taken over Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port for a 99-year lease and expanded and modernised Pakistan’s Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea where according to previous reports it plans a major naval base.
In his work report, Premier Li said that last year China made major strides in strengthening national defence and the armed forces, getting off to a good start in this endeavour in the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
“This year, we will fully implement Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the armed forces and the military strategy for the new era, work toward the goals for the centenary of the People’s Liberation Army in 2027, and strengthen Party leadership and Party building in all aspects of the military”, he said.
“We will enhance military training and combat readiness, stay firm and flexible in carrying out military struggle, and safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”, Li said.
“We will move faster to modernise the military’s logistics and asset management systems, and build a modern weaponry and equipment management system”, he said.
As the Chinese military carried out massive modernisation, observers say its tactics and approach along the 3488 km long Line of Actual Control, (LAC) also changed with periodic incursions, prominent of them were the 2017 Doklam and 2020 Eastern Ladakh.
In Eastern Ladakh, as a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the Indian and Chinese armies completed the disengagement process in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and Gogra areas but the standoff continued in the Hot Springs area.
The two sides so far held 14 rounds of Commanders level talks to resolve the Eastern Ladakh standoff.
China is also having increasing face-offs with the US in the disputed South China Sea and over Taiwan which China vows to integrate with the mainland.
Li in his work report said his government will continue the reform of national defence and the military and step up innovations in defence science and technology.
“We will implement the strategy of strengthening the military by training competent personnel in the new era, run the military in accordance with the law and strict discipline, and promote high-quality development of the military”, he said.
China will improve the layout of defence science, technology and industry, he said adding that we will finish reforming the defence mobilization system and raise public awareness of national defence.
“Government at all levels must give strong support to the development of national defence and the armed forces, so unity between the military and government and between the military and the people will remain rock solid”, he said.
