“A thousand miles” and “a thousand tasks”: China’s diplomatization of multifaceted russia-ukraine conflict and global security

Abstract

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC, China) unflinching stance throughout the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict has raised many eyebrows and provoked diverse reactions. The lingering question in different quarters is why China acts as it does and with what intentions. Once again, one troubling international turmoil was laid at the Chinese doorstep, almost turning into “China’s dilemma”. The starting assumption is that PRC’s conduct shows an unswerving strategic orientation toward “building a community with a shared future for mankind” (建设人类 命运共同体) through persistent diplomatization. Diplomatization is a distinct process of containing grave security problems by making them a matter of diplomacy. Current analysis falsifies this starting proposition through conceptual inquiry into key actions and documents in China’s diplomatic and political relations with Ukraine in the period from the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2011 up to the head-start of diplomatization of the convoluted Russia-Ukraine conflict by the Global Security Initiative in April 2022. A strong diplomatization pattern is found, showing that China’s stand regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a case of diplomatized security concerns as a trigger for the headstarted diplomatization of global security. China consistently pursued conceptualization and persuasion to dispel insecurities and contain warfare and ensuing global disturbances through conversation and deliberation focused on boosting major joint leaps for transforming obsolete modes of governance structures to becoming aligned to the manifest direction of epochal change. Furthermore, China’s global security outlook is firmly anchored in the national security concept.