Putin Quietly “Changed His Mind” On China’s Plan 

(NewsGlobal.com)- China released a 12-point plan for peace in the Russian/Ukraine war, and  Russian President Vladimir Putin resoundingly rejected it. But he’s now done an abrupt about-face. 

19FortyFive reports that Putin accepted the suggestion at a joint news conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday after initially rejecting China’s peace plan to end the Ukraine conflict.  

Russia’s Putin has said that many of the elements proposed in the plan are in line with Russian views and might serve as the “foundation for a peaceful solution” if and when Kyiv and the West are “ready” for it. 

But, the Russian president maintained that the West isn’t ready for peace. 

Putin’s statements significantly differed from those of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in February. The only peace proposal that Moscow will accept involves Russia absorbing at least four significant areas of Ukraine. 

Russia and Western commentators have panned China’s peace proposal for being too nebulous to be effective. It’s not only about Ukraine, as the first two elements of China’s 12-point peace plan are apparent. It seems the initiative is also, comically, meant to persuade Western countries to acknowledge China’s territorial claims over Taiwan.  

Under point one, the Chinese government supports strictly observing universally accepted international law and upholding all nations’ sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. 

The document states that all nations, significant or tiny, powerful or weak, wealthy or poor, are equal world community members.  

If the United States had suggested the same policy, few people here would have batted an eye, but because the concept of “territorial integrity” is defined quite differently in the East and West, the proposal is a bit disingenuous. 

Adherence to the One China policy and the reclamation of regions that the Chinese Communist Party views as inseparable from China are central to the concept of territorial integrity in China. Both Hong Kong and Taiwan would fall under this category.  

Restoring its territorial integrity requires Russia to retake Ukraine and revive the Russian Empire. 

The plan’s nebulous language might imply anything Putin wants it to mean, and perhaps the Chinese president used his recent meeting in Moscow to persuade Putin of this.