Debunking Bolton’s Absurd Claim That China Is The Greatest Threat To Ukraine

This infamous neoconservative's latest fearmongering claim is flat-out false since China sincerely wants to mediate a ceasefire between the two most direct combatants in the Ukrainian Conflict, Russia and Kiev, for five reasons related to advancing its objective national interests.

Infamous neoconservative John Bolton absurdly claimed in response to the unveiling of China’s 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that the People’s Republic represents the greatest threat to that former Soviet one. In his words, “To, to be clear, I think China’s in this with both feet on Russia’s side. And while I certainly don’t diminish the threat that China poses to Taiwan and countries in East and South Asia, I would say the most threatened country in the world today from China is Ukraine.”

This is flat-out false since China sincerely wants to mediate a ceasefire between the two most direct combatants in the Ukrainian Conflict, Russia and Kiev, for five reasons related to advancing its objective national interests. First, the ongoing NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine has been disastrous for globalization, upon which China’s long-term grand strategic goals depend. Anything that can reduce the related structural-systemic disruptions caused by that conflict will be supported by Beijing.

Second, the US-led West’s Golden Billion is hellbent on indefinitely perpetuating this proxy war, which thus exacerbates those aforesaid disruptions to the detriment of China and the Global South. The second-mentioned collection of developing countries appreciates China’s sincere efforts to alleviate the consequences that the US-provoked NATO-Russian proxy war is having on them, which therefore improves its soft power standing among the vast majority of humanity.

Third, with Ukraine being the scene of this proxy war between those two, it’s facing further destruction after its own NATO-backed offensive and Russia’s commence sometime very soon. China wants to avert that scenario, and not just for the humanitarian, soft power, and strategic reasons that were earlier explained, but also because it still retains sizeable investments in that former Soviet Republic. By doing its best to prevent further destruction, Beijing is thus attempting to protect those same investments.

Fourth, Ukraine has been conceptualized by China over the past decade as a bridge for facilitating its grand strategic vision of transcontinental connectivity via the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). The People’s Republic envisages Ukraine benefiting from the Chinese-European trade that could transit through its territory via the Eurasian Land Bridge, but this requires ending the NATO-Russian proxy war and improving ties with Moscow. Despite being very difficult to do, China still wants to give it a shot.

And finally, in the event that NATO massively dispatches (“mercenary”-operated?) modern equipment to Kiev out of desperation to reverse the military-strategic dynamics that are presently trending towards Russia’s favor and begins to succeed with this, then Moscow might dramatically escalate in self-defense. Ukraine would obviously bear the brunt of whatever comes next, and it’s with a view towards averting that worst-case and possibly even nuclear scenario that China so urgently wants to mediate a ceasefire.

The five points shared in this analysis comprehensively debunk Bolton’s absurd claim that China allegedly represents the greatest threat to Ukraine. Nothing could be further from the truth since this neutral multipolar Great Power is doing everything in its political power to prevent that former Soviet Republic’s further destruction that’s destined to happen if a ceasefire isn’t urgently clinched. Kiev would therefore do well to seriously consider Beijing’s peace plan and reject US pressure to rubbish it.