Emerging evidence of widespread civilian massacres in the wake of Russian withdrawals from the Kiev region could complicate Beijing’s efforts to guide public opinion on the conflict, in which China has refused to criticize Moscow. China supports all initiatives and measures “helping to alleviate the humanitarian crisis” in the country and “is ready to continue working with the international community to prevent any harm to civilians,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. to journalists in daily updates. . “The truth and the cause of the incident must be verified,” Zao said. “All parties should show restraint and avoid baseless allegations before the outcome of the investigation is clear.” Zhao’s remarks echo those of China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, who had earlier called for an investigation, also describing reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha as “deeply disturbing.” “The relevant circumstances and the specific causes of the incident should be verified and ascertained,” Zhang said in a statement to the Security Council on Tuesday, adding that “before the full picture is clear, all parties should show restraint and avoid unfounded accusations “. China has demanded talks, but has refused to criticize Russia. He opposes economic sanctions on Moscow and accuses Washington and NATO of provoking the war and provoking the conflict by sending weapons to Ukraine. The Communist Party-controlled media have largely stuck to a pro-Moscow narrative, including the repetition of Russian misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories on issues such as the alleged US-Ukrainian production of bio-weapons. Zao reiterated China’s objections to the sanctions, accusing the United States of manipulating the situation to “profit from the chaos and make a lot of money.” “History and reality have shown that sanctions do not bring peace and security, they only bring losses or multiple losses, adding to the already difficult global economy and affecting the existing global economic system,” Zao said. The hashtag “China expresses Bucha’s death must be thoroughly investigated” was a popular topic on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, with nearly 30 million views and more than 500 conversations as of Wednesday afternoon. Despite the pro-Russian stance of authorities who regularly censor posts, views differ between support for Moscow, Russia’s demand for accountability, accusations of distrust of the West and Ukraine, and calls for impartial investigation. “This is just a play by the Nazi Americans and Ukrainians in an effort to divert public opinion, but the people of the world with their eyes and hearts will not ignore the US and Ukrainian events investigating biological weapons.” refers to a post. with the signature “Understands the Cold War better than America”. The Russian embassy in Beijing also used the platform to disprove the allegations, while its Ukrainian counterpart drew attention to “Russian war crimes against civilians in Irpin,” another city where atrocities were reported. Prior to the February 24 war, China had dismissed talk of a Russian invasion as “fake news” and the United States. national sovereignty while refusing to condemn Russian aggression or even use the words “war” and “invasion”, in obvious respect for Moscow. The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid published by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily spokesman, sought to balance the rival messages with a headline Wednesday entitled “Bhutan Incident Not to Be Used as Pretext for Inflammation” . “As long as Russia and Ukraine can not achieve a ceasefire, the humanitarian tragedies will not end,” the newspaper said. However, it is unfortunate that after the revelation of the “Bucha incident”, the US, the instigators of the crisis in Ukraine, have shown no signs of urging for peace and the promotion of talks, but are ready to aggravate Russia-Ukraine tensions and “They create obstacles to peace talks between the two sides,” he said.
