Chinese historians condemn Russian invasion, expect Beijing to take a stance

Five renowned Chinese historians have written an open letter, condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as they called for peace. With this, the authors hope to persuade Beijing to make its stance clearer, which is that what Russia is doing is wrong.

The historians believe that China should say it out loud.

A report by The Guardian quotes the historians as saying: “What will this war lead to? Will it lead to a large-scale world war?”

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“Great catastrophes in history often started with local conflicts. We strongly opposed Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state by force … is a violation of the norms of international relations based on the United Nations charter and a breach of the existing international security system.”

Xu Guoqi, one of the historians say that Beijing’s reluctance to denounce Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is alarming.

“I’m a historian of the first world war. Europe sleep-walked into a huge conflict over 100 years ago, which also had had enormous consequences for China,” Xu said.

However, at the same time, censors are not taking putting down all anti-war posts on social media.For instance, on WeChat, many have been discussing the situation in Ukraine.

When Putin ordered his military to put Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on alert, many Chinese social media users posted a 1994 statement in which China urged all the powerful states to not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states that do not have them.

Many are speaking against Russia’s action on social media. Such people often meet with pro-war trolls who accuse them of being “weak” and “naive”.

“If Russia has issues with Nato, it should deal with Nato, why invade Ukraine?” one questioned in a WeChat video.

The video went viral and garnered over half a million views in hours.

(With inputs from agencies)