Reports are that Russia tried to no avail yesterday to get the UN Security Council to debate Ukraine’s complaint about Russian troops violating its sovereignty and territorial integrity behind closed doors.
Conspicuously absent from these reports, however, was any reference to China being no less solicitous of avoiding open debate. This was brought into stark when China was the only permanent member that refused to openly condemn Russia’s de facto annexation of the Crimea. Many reporters and political pundits were incredulous. I was not.
In “Putin as Hitler; Crimea as Sudetenland” at February 26 below, I alluded to the prospect of the United States, United Kingdom, and China forming an alliance to stop Russia today the way the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia did to stop Germany during World War II. But my allusion to China in this context was decidedly parenthetical.
After all, I am all too mindful that Russia incurs public condemnation because it supports genocidal despots like Assad openly and notoriously. China avoids this because it only does so … behind closed doors:
I feel compelled to reserve a little condemnation for Russia (and for China – given that it invokes this same specious principle of non-interference in its role as patron to indicted war criminals like President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan).
Mind you, it should be noted that, in addition to protecting geostrategic interests, Russian and Chinese leaders are also expressing solidarity with Assad because he happens to be emulating the brute force they have used, and intend to continue using, to hold on to power in their respective countries.
(“Now Houla: Assad of Syria Continues to Massacre with Impunity,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 29, 2012)
This is just one of the many iterations I’ve propounded over the years to disabuse countries (like Ukraine) of any expectation that China will even condemn foreign aggression against them, let alone risk blood and treasure to protect them as the United States has done throughout its history. Indeed, if Europe depended on China instead of the United States to help fight Nazi aggression during World War II, Europeans would now be living the early years of the one-thousand-year reign of Germany’s Third Reich – just as Hitler fantasized.
Specifically, Tiananmen Square explains why Chinese leaders will never condemn dictators like Assad (or even a latter-day Adolf Hitler) for massacring their own people to hold onto power. But Crimea explains why they will never even condemn one country for invading another under the pretext of furthering legitimate national interests. The reason for this of course is that China wants to imbue this pretext with legitimacy in case it decides to invade Taiwan. More to the point, if the Unites States and Europe stand by while Russia takes Crimea, China would expect them to do the same while it takes Taiwan (or those little Senkaku Islands in China Sea that it has been squabbling with Japan over).
It is worth noting though that this resolution on Syria was supported by virtually every other member [of the United Nations], including the Arab league. But the reason China and Russia were determined to brook universal condemnation for effectively sanctioning Assad’s crimes against humanity is that they are setting a UN precedent to give themselves cover if/when they are forced to brutalize their people in similar fashion to stay in power. Which of course is just one of the reasons why neither China nor Russia will ever earn the respect and admiration the United States enjoys in the international community.
(“’Liberated’ Egypt Thumping Nose at United States,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 7, 2012)
In the meantime, reports abound about Obama haranguing Putin in a 90-minute redline phone call yesterday for violating international law. Yet none of them are reporting anything Obama told Putin he intended to do about it.
I delineated yesterday in “Putin Intervenes in Ukraine. Checkmates Obama?” what Obama should do. I will only add that, instead of waiting for June to boycott the G8 Summit in Sochi, he should boycott the Winter Paralympics that are scheduled to open there on Friday.
Because it’s one thing to have American athletes participating under the auspices of the Russian Federation (as they did at the regular Olympics last month) when people are protesting Russian anti-gay laws that are no more invidious than American anti-gay laws. It’s quite another to have them participating when Russian troops are aping Nazi soldiers in neighboring Ukraine. If world leaders could boycott South Africa over its discrimination against Blacks in South Africa, surely they can boycott Russia over its military aggression against Ukrainians … in Ukraine.