Chinese Foreign Minister Tells EU Beijing Doesn’t Want Russia to Lose to Ukraine, Reports Say

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his European counterpart that Beijing does not want Russia to lose its war against Ukraine over fears that the United States would increase its focus on China, according to media reports.

The reported remark deviated from Beijing’s usual claim of neutrality.

On July 2, Wang and Kaja Kallas, European Commission vice president and high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, met in Brussels for the 13th Strategic Dialogue between Beijing and the European Union, where they discussed a range of issues, including trade, Ukraine, and the Middle East.

Regarding Ukraine, the European Commission’s press briefing on the closed-door meeting said Kallas had “highlighted the serious threat Chinese companies’ support for Russia’s illegal war poses to European security.”

“She urged China to immediately cease all material support that sustains Russia’s military industrial complex and called on China to back a full and unconditional ceasefire and a just and lasting peace in Ukraine grounded in full respect for the United Nations Charter,” the commission said.

It added that Kallas pressured Wang on other issues, including Beijing’s “unilateral attempts to alter the status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, human rights in China, and “hybrid threats in Europe coming from China.”

Beijing used most of its statement on the meeting to tout the “extensive common interests” it has with Brussels, adding that Wang and Kallas “exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the Iranian nuclear issue.”

According to the South China Morning Post, which cited several unnamed sources familiar with the meeting, Wang denied that Beijing had provided any material support—financial or military—for Russia in its war against Ukraine, but he said Beijing doesn’t want to see Moscow lose because of concerns that Washington would focus all of its attention on the Chinese regime.

The report said some EU officials were surprised by Wang’s frank remarks.

CNN also quoted one unnamed official as saying Wang expressed a possible preference for a protracted war in Ukraine to distract the United States from focusing on China.

In a press briefing on July 4, Anitta Hipper, the EU’s lead spokesperson on foreign affairs, declined to comment on the leaks.

“Our focus is on Ukraine, on supporting Ukraine,” she said. “Russia is here the aggressor; Ukraine is here the victim.

“So we’re making sure to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position.”

When asked to comment by email, an EU spokesperson referred The Epoch Times to the same press briefing.

Yeh Yao-yuan, a professor of international studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, told The Epoch Times that “what the Chinese Communist Party wants most is to prolong the war and distract the United States” and that the threats can make the EU “feel the pressure from China behind the scenes.”

U.S. and European intelligence communities have long accused the Chinese regime of allowing private companies to smuggle weapons components to Russia.

In February, Kallas called the Chinese regime “a key enabler of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” and said the support “negatively affects EU–China relations.”

She said the bloc had sanctioned 33 entities in China and Hong Kong because they had been “found to export to Russia sanctioned dual-use and advanced tech components, including of EU origin, which are used by the Russian army to wage war against Ukraine.”

In October 2024, the United States sanctioned two Chinese companies, saying they were responsible for the development and manufacture of entire weapons systems in partnership with Russian firms.

In May, Ukraine said it had confirmed intelligence that China was supplying machine tools, specialty chemicals, gunpowder, and drone electronics to at least 20 Russian arms factories.

Cheng Chin-mo, an associate professor at the Department of Diplomacy and International Relations at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times that Beijing has been supporting Russia so that Chinese leader Xi Jinping could challenge the existing international order and establish a Chinese communist hegemony.

“I think the EU knows that Xi would never urge [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to stop the war,” he said. “In fact, what we see is that [Xi] continuously ramped up military support for Russia.”

Wang’s visit to Europe came amid tensions between the United States and other economies, including the EU, over trade imbalances and ahead of an EU–China summit scheduled for later this month.

During her meeting with Wang, Kallas also urged Beijing to “put an end to its distortive [trade] practices,” and said its restrictions on rare earths exports pose “significant risks to European companies and endanger the reliability of global supply chains,” the European Commission said.

Cheng said Beijing has had “lots of chances” in the past years but has made “no effort” to rebalance trade with the 27-country bloc.

“The EU–China relationship is currently in a very bad state, especially after the Russia–Ukraine war,” he said.

“Therefore, it is unlikely that Europe will side with China and confront the United States.”

Fei Chen contributed to this report.