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(Xia Pingyang)
The British "Financial Times" website published an article titled "How the Ukraine War Has Divided the World" on April 17, authored by Gideon Rachman. The main content of the article is excerpted as follows:
While Joe Biden was on a sentimental journey to Ireland, Xi Jinping was busy in Beijing. Following a high-profile visit by President Emmanuel Macron of France, the Chinese leader played host to President Lula of Brazil.
The messaging to emerge from the Lula-Xi summit was congenial to China and disturbing to the US. Brazil’s leader said that his country wanted to work with China to “balance world politics” and accused America of “incentivising” the war in Ukraine.
China has also made recent headway with its Middle East diplomacy. This month, the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing, after China brokered a deal to restore diplomatic relations between the two powers.
The preferred messages to the world from Xi and China are clear: "While America promotes war, China promotes peace. While China promotes trade, America imposes economic sanctions. "
These developments are causing some concern in Washington. Larry Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, spoke last week of “troubling” signs that America was losing global influence.
A significant divergence in attitudes to the war in Ukraine is driving these shifts. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an eminent Indian political scientist, points out that for a large part of the world, America’s reaction to the Russian invasion seems to be as problematic as the invasion itself.
In response to the Ukraine war, the US launched an effort to turn Russia into an economic and diplomatic outcast. Unprecedented economic sanctions were imposed and Russian foreign reserves were frozen.
For these countries, the Ukraine war may be regrettable — but it is a conflict to be managed by the pursuit of ceasefires and compromises.
The Indians and others argue that sanctions imposed on Russia have created new problems for the rest of the world. They point to the impact of the war on food and energy prices, and therefore on poor people around the world.
Actions that were widely applauded in the west — such as the freezing of Russian foreign reserves and sanctions on the assets of Russian oligarchs — have sent a chilling message about the potential danger of keeping your assets in dollars.
The dollar is the world’s most popular currency for trade. But China is the world’s largest trading nation. Rather than doing less trade with China, some countries are looking to do less trade in dollars.
If the United States cannot persuade or browbeat the rest of the world into agreement on how to view the war in Ukraine, America’s own global position may be eroded.
Gideon Rachman is mainly responsible for writing articles on US foreign policy, EU affairs, energy issues and economic globalization at the Financial Times. He is a frequent participant at conferences, academic and business events, and is active as a commentator on television and radio programs. He was the editor-in-chief of the Asia section of The Economist.
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