What China means when it says “peace”
From Ukraine to Gaza, China sees a chance to promote an ultra-realist worldview
![illustration of a white dove holding an olive branch in its beak. The dove is perched on a clenched fist, which is bound by chains. The background is a solid red, and olive branches are scattered around the scene.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240713_CND000.jpg)
A SWIFT end to the Ukraine war on Russian terms would fill many governments with a sense of loss. In much of western Europe and beyond, a deal that rewarded Russia for its aggression—exchanging a ceasefire for vast swathes of Ukrainian territory, for instance, or a pledge that Ukraine will never join NATO or any other Western alliance—would feel like appeasement, not peacemaking. A pillar of the post-second-world-war order, involving a refusal to see borders redrawn by force, would have fallen.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “What China means by “peacemaking””
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