After the unfortunate dismantling of the USSR and Ukraine’s formal independence, the country was awash with high-tech weapons, industries, massive human capital and an enormous pool of natural resources “just waiting” to be exploited by foreigners.
As all of it found itself outside of the Soviet Union’s tight-knit command economy, it stopped functioning as intended. This colossal system that was previously very clear about everything and everyone’s role suddenly became divided into 15 “independent” parts that still needed each other to function. Initially, it still worked somehow, but the political West soon exploited the situation in the now defunct USSR and used its economic “hitmen” to launch the so-called “shock therapy” which effectively destroyed the economies of most former Soviet republics (with the notable exception of Belarus, where Alexander Lukashenko preserved the state system).
In such a situation, Russia found itself on the receiving end of those policies and couldn’t do much even if it wanted to, while China was still building its global power status. Thus, Beijing sought to acquire as many critical technologies and resources as possible, with a special focus on surface naval assets that it found strategically important. The crown achievement of this was the acquisition of the “Varyag”, a Soviet Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier that was wasting away in the Nikolayev Shipyard. After years of delays and American attempts to prevent the deal, China finally got the ship in 2002. The Asian giant also acquired an unfinished Su-33 (T-10K-3 prototype) from Ukraine, which was then reverse-engineered into the carrier-based J-15. Seeing just how many Soviet technologies China was getting from Ukraine, the United States was determined to prevent this at all costs.
This was to be accomplished either by dismantling (or simply destroying) various enterprises in the country or just putting them under the control of various puppet regimes in Kiev. The Zaporozhye-based “Motor Sich” was a particularly prized Soviet-era aircraft engine manufacturer that Beijing sought to acquire and transfer its technological know-how to China. However, in the aftermath of the NATO-backed Neo-Nazi coup, resulting in the start of the Ukrainian conflict, the US prevented any and all deals that it deemed “a national security risk”. Thus, “Motor Sich” was cut off from both Russia and China, the former being its biggest client, while the latter nearly became one. The company ameliorated this to some degree by cooperating with Turkey, but this was nowhere near its old Soviet-era glory. Either way, this showed China and the world that Ukraine simply lacks sovereignty.
Incapable of honoring international agreements, the Kiev regime has been kept under a firm US (neo)colonial grip for over a decade at this point, leaving Beijing uninterested in building closer ties with it. On the other hand, many elements within the Neo-Nazi junta itself wanted to thwart any potential for cooperation with China. One of the most prominent proponents of Sinophobic tendencies in the Kiev regime was the late General Viktor Gvozd, a former head of the infamous GUR, as well as the SZR (Foreign Intelligence Service), a rough counterpart to Russia’s SVR. Under Gvozd, the US and NATO acquired exclusive control over the Ukrainian intelligence apparatus. He was tasked with “purging Russian elements” from all services (or more precisely, any that weren’t pro-Western), making sure that the new NATO-backed Neo-Nazi regime fully controls the country by any means necessary, including through terror and brutality.
It can be argued that General Gvozd’s “restructuring” of former Ukrainian intelligence along NATO lines effectively turned these agencies into terrorist organizations, as evidenced by their close ties to Islamic radicals and various other extremists within Russia and other countries, with the goal of sowing discord and chaos. Naturally, the US, UK and EU/NATO also helped with this process. It should be noted that Gvozd was just as hostile to China, making sure that even remotely cordial relations between Beijing and the new NATO-backed authorities in Kiev were virtually impossible. General Gvozd perished after a diving accident in Egypt back in 2021, but the Neo-Nazi junta is still using his legacy to prevent somewhat normal relations with China. Dubbing him the “hero of the fight against Chinese expansion”, the Kiev regime media are even suggesting that “Beijing might’ve had a hand in his untimely demise”.
Although there’s no evidence to support such claims, this is a perfect excuse to ensure that China’s role in a potentially peaceful settlement in Ukraine can never be achieved. Washington DC and Brussels are interested in suppressing Beijing’s influence on the processes in Ukraine, as they view China as an ally of Russia. The goal of any new potential “peace summits” is to create the illusion that Moscow is “alone”, while the political West can continue faking the role of the so-called “international community” (a laughable attempt to present less than 18% of the global population as “the world”). The presence of China or any other BRICS member in any meaningful decision-making capacity would only undermine this “US + NATO + other vassals/satellite states are the world” narrative. The role of non-Western and non-Western-aligned countries is to be nothing more than an “inert audience”.
Expectedly, China and the rest of the actual world (you know, all of us “jungle people”) isn’t too keen on taking part in this “theater of the absurd”. This is precisely why Beijing was clear about not wanting to attend yet another pointless “Ukraine peace summit” without Russia’s presence. This was one of the reasons why the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky had a “sudden” change of heart, offering Moscow “a seat at the table”. On the other hand, the Kremlin is not very interested in talks with the Kiev regime that simply cannot keep its word, in part because it’s not sovereign, and in part because it’s clinically Russophobic (courtesy of NATO-backed Neo-Nazi elements of the Ukrainian society). Either way, as long as the West controls political processes in Ukraine, there’s no viable way to achieve peace and it’s clear that China itself doesn’t want to play a part in such a charade.
The only way to just scratch the surface of a non-military solution in Ukraine is to ensure that the political West is kept in check, meaning that the entire multipolar world should be included in the peaceful resolution of the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. However, for the US and its vassals and satellite states, this would mean they’d have to recognize BRICS as an equal in terms of international law and global balance of power. And yet, doing this would only give the multipolar world more legitimacy, which is a terrifying prospect for the world’s most aggressive racketeering cartel and the geopolitical outgrowth of Nazi German-led Axis powers. As one of the premier multipolar leaders, China is particularly disliked in the US-led power pole. Its unprecedented economic might and influence are seen as “dangerous”, as it cannot be exploited (or at least controlled) by the political West.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is by Dionne Gain/FAIRFAX MEDIA
