Xi Jinping Calls for ‘Maximum Restraint’ in Ukraine, CIA Says China 'Unsettled'

President Xi Jinping said China, Germany, and France should mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, (right) with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

(Photo: AP/PTI)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, 8 March, called for “maximum restraint” in Ukraine in a virtual joint conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, reported Reuters.

China has previously refused to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming that friendship between the two countries was ‘rock solid’ and had also signed a ‘no-limits’ partnership with Russia last month.

Xi on Tuesday said:

“We would like to call for maximum restraint to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis.”

He described the Ukraine conflict as “worrying” and said the situation must be prevented from “spinning out of control”, reported Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi proposed that the three countries – China, France, and Germany – jointly support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

He expressed concern over the global impact of the tough sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia, which he feared could topple the stability of global finance, energy supplies, transportation and supply chains.

Cost of Being a Moscow Ally

Meanwhile, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns told US lawmakers on Tuesday that he believed China was “unsettled” by the Ukraine crisis, as per a report by AFP.

He said, “I think President Xi and the Chinese leadership are a little bit unsettled by what they're seeing in Ukraine.”

“They did not anticipate the significant difficulties the Russians were going to run into," he added.

Burns, who is a former ambassador to Moscow, said that Beijing was worried about the economic consequences of being a Moscow ally at a time when China was facing record low annual growth rates.

He told the US Panel that China was also worried "by the reputational damage that can come by their close association with President Putin."

(With inputs from Reuters, AFP.)