On April 26, Zelenskyy had his first phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president called the conversation “long and meaningful”.

It made headlines that day, and almost no media covered the UN referendum that was happening around the same time. There, a resolution was presented by 48 countries, including Norwaywhich called for closer co-operation between the Council of Europe and the UN, inter alia, regarding “the challenges facing Europe, following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Georgia” .

China has so far been heavily criticized by Western countries for failing to condemn the Russian invasion. In the UN Security Council, the country chose to abstain from voting.

This time, at the UN General Assembly, China chose to vote for the resolution, which thus names Russia as the aggressive party in the war in Ukraine. Five countries voted against, including Russia and Belarus.

– China distances itself from Russia

– The fact that China accepts this text and does not demand a change, but votes for it, can be interpreted as a signal that they are slipping, says China expert and historian Torbjørn Færøvik in Nettavisen.

He left himself by the resolutionand notes that although the point regarding Russia’s aggression is almost mentioned in a subordinate clause, it is nevertheless a new and unique development by China.

– It is not abnormal to interpret this as a first signal that China is beginning to distance itself from Russia, but it is a little early to say, adds Færøvik.

“Putin’s disastrous and one-sided embrace”

The British historian Sergej Radchenko (born in Russia, then in the Soviet Union, editor’s note) also widens his eyes when he discovers the vote.

– China has previously abstained from voting on resolutions that affect the war in Ukraine, so voting yes is really a new twist, he writes on Twitter.

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Radchenko specializes in relations between China and Russia. He noted that there was a debate and a vote on whether section 9 of the resolution, i.e. the part that characterizes Russia’s actions as “aggression”, should or not be part of the final resolution. China chose to abstain.

– But since paragraph 9 was adopted, the whole resolution was voted on as above, adds Radchenko.

So what does this really mean, the British historian asks:

– First, Beijing ticks some boxes where they appear to be more neutral in the conflict than they actually are, writes Radchenko, referring to the phone conversation between kyiv and Beijing.

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– Secondly, it is a clear reminder to Moscow that they have very little influence over China and that they basically have to swallow what they get. This is an expected outcome of Putin’s disastrous unilateral embrace of Beijing (and this is probably just the beginning), Radchenko writes, adding that China is still largely on Russia’s side:

– But with reservations. They seek to freeze the conflict rather than watch it drag on or escalate. A weakened/isolated Russia dependent on Beijing after the war objectively serves China’s interests, concludes the historian.

– Strange that no one wrote about it

Færøvik recounts how Western leaders took turns visiting Jinping in Beijing and speaking clearly about the war in Ukraine:

– So it may be that the overall pressure is starting to work.

– When China votes like this at the UN, how connected is President Xi Jinping?

– It’s hard to answer, as we don’t know how the internal systems work in Beijing, but there may well have been signals from senior management that we are making a gradual, almost invisible change to our policy. Because if China suddenly changed course, it wouldn’t turn out very well, replies the China expert.

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Færøvik also tells Nettavisen that China has found itself in a difficult situation, where it wants to safeguard economic relations with Russia and the West:

– Neither the EU, nor the United States, nor Canada, nor Australia will have anything to do with China as long as this lasts.

– Do you have any ideas as to why this resolution at the UN slipped a bit under the radar of mainstream media?

– The UN passes resolutions all the time, and if you want to follow that, you have to have the UN as your work zone 24 hours a day, says Færøvik, but adds that it’s not just any vote – it took place in the General Assembly of the United Nations.

– So it’s a bit strange that neither the New York Times, the Washington Post nor others have written about it, says Færøvik.

It was Kyiv Post which on May 1, five days after the vote, first mentioned China’s reversal. Subsequently, the case was also picked up by the Ukrainian News Agency Interfax.