‘They were fooled by Putin’: Chinese historians speak out against Russian invasion

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. China publicly opposes any act that violates territorial integrity but over the past week has echoed Putin’s argument that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is a response to Nato’s eastward expansion. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/AP

For Xu Guoqi, a Chinese historian, Beijing’s reluctance to denounce Vladimir 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. “The world may be at the point of no return again”.

But looking at how Chinese diplomats are responding to it, and how Chinese people have talked about it on social media in the past week, he said, “I’m afraid it seems we still have not learned the lessons of the past tragedies. As a historian I’m very disappointed.”