• Xi Jinping’s stance on Ukraine will be scrutinized during his discussions with US President Joe Biden.
• China has stated its support for peace and insistence that it is neutral in the conflict.
• Western officials have pushed China to use its contacts with Russia to mediate a settlement of the dispute.

This year’s G20 meeting will be overshadowed by the situation in Ukraine and its economic repercussions, therefore Xi Jinping’s stance on the issue will be scrutinized during his discussions with US President Joe Biden and during the two-day conference.

China has stated its support for peace and insistence that it is neutral in the conflict between Russia and its neighboring Ukraine ever since the Russian invasion began. However, it has refrained from denouncing the invasion and has instead criticized Western sanctions, spent record amounts on Russian energy, and charged NATO and Washington with inciting Moscow to go to war.

As Russian tanks poured across the Ukrainian border just weeks after Xi and Putin declared their nations’ alliance had “no bounds,” the US and its allies closely watched if China would send any material help for the war effort to Putin, with whom Xi has a deep personal rapport.

While Western officials have not claimed to have discovered evidence of such support, they have pushed China to use its contacts with Russia to mediate a settlement of the dispute.

These topics are likely to have come up during the extensive discussions that took place between Xi, Biden, and their top officials on Monday night in Bali.

The rest of the world will be keeping an eye on how Xi handles the pressure, particularly in light of a number of recent developments that have changed the situation in Ukraine, such as Putin’s illegitimate annexation of four Ukrainian regions, his nuclear threats, and the Russian military’s mounting losses there.

The stakes are much higher for Xi because this summit will be his second international trip since the outbreak began and China has continued to enforce stringent border restrictions and a zero-Covid policy.

During this summit, Xi will be seated with US and other NATO leaders who have supported Ukraine while risking their own energy security. Putin has opted not to travel to the summit.

His G20 participation stands in stark contrast to Xi’s first overseas meeting earlier this fall, when he attended a conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with his central Asian counterparts in Uzbekistan.

Xi’s preference for a different global order free of what Beijing perceives as US control was made clear at that summit.

His present G20 tour and impending attendance at the APEC leaders’ conference in Bangkok later this week send a different message, presumably in an effort to boost China’s standing in the face of escalating tensions with the West.

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