TUESDAY, MARCH 1 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
russia invades ukraineBY LILY KUOWith petitions, poetry and one-
man protests, a small but increas-
ingly bold contingent of Chinese
residents has spoken out against
Moscow’s incursions against
Ukraine directly contradicting
their government’s firm support
of its Russian partner.
While such voices have been
nearly drowned out by a deafen-
ing chorus of pro-Russian and
a nti-Western sentiments, their
opinions show opposition to Chi-
na’s new tilt toward Russia as it
seeks to shore up the alliance to
counter Western influence.
Local media reported Monday
that a man in Hangzhou held up a
sign that read: “Stop War” in Eng-
lish. In Chinese, he wrote, “Please
do not support war in Ukraine.”
On WeChat, Chinese poet Yu Xi-
uhua published a new poem, titled
“I pray a poem can stop a tank.”
In a n open letter published Sat-
urday, a group of professors from
universities in Beijing, Nanjing,
Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao
called on Russia to stop the incur-
sion. “A s a country that was once
ravaged by war, where families
were destroyed, where every-
where people were dying of star-
vation, ... [w]e sympathize with
the pain of the Ukrainian people,”
it said.
On Monday, a petition con-
demning the invasion of Ukraine
was signed by 121 alumni from
several of China’s top universities,
according to a copy provided by
one of its organizers. The petition
called on the Chinese government
to honor commitments made to
Ukraine under U.N. Resolution
984, which gave security assur-
ances to countries without nu-
clear weapons.
“We resolutely support the
righteous fight of the Ukrainian
people against Russian aggres-
sion. We d emand t hat the i nterna-
tional community maintain and
respect the territorial integrity,
the national dignity, and the sov-
ereignty of Ukraine,” the state-
ment said.
In the days since Russia’s inva-
sion of Ukraine, Chinese social
media has been dominated by na-
tionalistic voices following the of-
ficial line blaming the United
States and its Western allies for
the crisis.
The overwhelming pro-Rus-
sian sentiment, as well as the few
pro-Ukrainian voices, underline
the delicate position that Chinese
leaders are in as they try to navi-
gate a geopolitical landscape
where Beijing has little experi-
ence. China has been walking a
fine line between maintaining sol-
idarity with Moscow while not
directly endorsing the a ttack — an
approach that has earned it criti-
cism from other countries as well
as Chinese citizens.
State media have refrained
from characterizing Russia’smoves as an invasion. Over the
weekend, state broadcaster CCTV
repeated Russian misinformation
reporting that Ukrainian Presi-
dent Volodymyr Zelensky had fled
the country. T he broadcaster later
updated its report to say the
source of the information had not
been verified.
While the anti-American senti-
ment online broadly agrees with
the official C hinese p osition, s ome
of the postings have become too
extreme for official appetites, not
the least because of fears it could
exacerbate anti-Chinese views in
Ukraine, where thousands of Chi-
nese nationals await evacuation.
Since Friday, WeChat, Weibo
and Douyin (the Chinese versionof TikTok) have all said they have
started cracking down on “inap-
propriate content,” while China’s
official People’s D aily implored I n-
ternet users to “speak rationally.”
Chinese Internet users have
praised the speed and capability
of the Russian military — appar-
ently working off Moscow’s char-
acterizations of the fighting — and
hailed Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin for standing up to the
West.
Putin’s long, angry speech or-
dering military action trended on
the microblog Weibo last week
after it was promoted by the na-
tionalist Global Times. In vulgar
posts later censored, many users
called for Ukrainian women to besent to China for safety, while
others jokingly called for joining
the war effort to “get more aca-
demic credit.”
On Weibo, users expressed sur-
prise when they learned that s ome
of their Russian counterparts ac-
tually opposed the war. “This is
the brainwashing of Western col-
or revolutions,” one user wrote,
referring to the official Russian
and increasingly Chinese view
that the popular revolutions in
Eastern Europe against pro-Mos-
cow regimes in the 200 0s were
orchestrated by the West. “These
people don’t realize how good
they have it,” another said.
Wang Di, chair professor at the
department of history at the Uni-versity of Macao, who signed the
statement by academics released
Saturday, said the volume of such
warmongering views motivated
him to sign.
“There’s a worry that the inter-
national community may be mis-
led into thinking there is only one
voice in China,” he said. “Many
people admire Putin because of
nationalism or belief in ‘strong-
men’ leaders, and this is what is
most scary. If China one day is
faced with a choice, will it choose
peace or war?”
Antiwar views have been met
with derision online, with critics
referring to such peace propo-
nents as sanctimonious “Virgin
Marys” or as hypocrites that op-
pose all wars except those
launched by the United States.
“What I am against is aggres-
sion. Ordinary people participate
in war, and their lives are ruined
by war. War consumes real human
lives,” said Huang, 25, working in
biomedicine in Quzhou in Zheji-
ang province, who gave only her
surname out of concern for secu-
rity.
Sun Jiang, professor of history
and political science at Nanjing
University, who helped draft the
open letter signed by professors,
said that China must oppose the
war or else it will be going against
its principles as well as that of the
international system.
“Regardless of Russia’s thou-
sands of excuses, the use of force
to invade a sovereign country is a
violation of the norms of interna-
tional relations,” he said.
The letter he signed concludes,
“Peace begins with the desire in
one’s heart. We oppose unjust
war.”
Censors appear worried about
pro-peace views, as well. Posts
about antiwar protests in Russia
have disappeared from WeChat,
and videos originally published
on the news aggregator To utiao
appear to have been removed.
The statement Sun drafted has
been removed, and the account
that posted it has been closed for
“violating regulations.”Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Lyric
Li in Seoul contributed to this report.Amid nationalism’s roar, a ntiwar voices speak up in China
NOEL CELIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
A bicyclist passes the Ukrainian Embassy in Beijing last week. In an open letter published Saturday, a group of professors from
universities in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao called on Russia to stop the incursion into Ukraine.Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)Ranking MemberHouse Homeland Security CommitteeTuesday, March 1 at 10:00 a.m.The ranking member of the House HomelandSecurity Committee discusses the latestcybersecurity concerns regarding Russia andlooks ahead to the State of the Union address.To register to watch, visit:wapo.st/katkomarch2022 or scancode using a smartphone camera:Listen wherever podcasts are available.@POSTLIVE #POSTLIVE