China doesn’t really care who wins the war in Ukraine — it just wants to win the peace, analysts say

China has been eager to position itself as a peace broker to end the war between Russia and Ukraine since the invasion began, offering to mediate between the countries soon after Russian troops pushed over the border.

But Beijing has remained conspicuously close to Russia as the war has progressed, refusing to condemn or criticize the ongoing armed aggression against Ukraine. It’s ideologically aligned with Moscow in an anti-Western stance, with both professing their wish to see a more “multipolar world.”

And despite a number of calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and even a visit to Moscow in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping only called his Ukrainian counterpart for the first time in recent weeks.

During the call, Xi said he would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties on reaching a cease-fire and a peaceful resolution to what Beijing describes as a “crisis.”

Attempts to broker a peace deal step up a gear this week with China’s special representative on Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, set to visit Ukraine, Russia and several other European countries for talks “on a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” China’s foreign ministry said Friday.

There’s little doubt that China wants the war between Russia and Ukraine to end, and soon. Beijing is widely believed to perceive the war’s unpredictable nature, unknown endpoint and the global economic instability caused by the conflict as very undesirable side-effects.

But as it attempts to position itself as a honest peace broker that could bring about an end to one of the most bloodiest conflicts in Europe for decades — and one that has pitched Russia (and indeed, China, at times) against the wider West — there are question marks over China’s perceived neutrality,…