Beijing riles Zelenskyy and Marcos

Decoding transatlantic relations with Beijing.
By STUART LAU
with PHELIM KINE
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HELLO CHINA WATCHERS. This is Stuart Lau in Singapore, covering the Shangri-La Dialogue this past weekend with my colleagues Suzanne Lynch and Zoya Sheftalovich. Your U.S.-China dossier will come from Phelim Kine on Thursday, as usual.
THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: Nothing happened in Tiananmen Square, according to China. (Even though the military crackdown of student protests at Tiananmen Square was well-documented all over the world.)
ANGRY AT PUTIN’S BEST BUDDY: Arriving in Singapore via Stockholm and Abu Dhabi, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t disappoint the hundreds of journalists cramped in the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, where Asia’s premier security conference took place last weekend.
He issued a rare rebuke of Beijing, after years of careful attempts to court China and peel it away from its “no limits” friendship with Russia.
“Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit,” Zelenskyy said Sunday during a press conference, referring to the planned event in Switzerland on June 15-16.
He went on to paint China as Russia’s military backer. “We do not expect military support from China. We have never asked them … But we do not expect China to provide defense support to Russia,” Zelenskyy said.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping “promised me China would stand aside, would not support Russia with weapons. Today, there is intelligence that somehow, some way, some things come to Russia’s markets via China … elements of Russia’s weaponry come from China,” he added.
XI GHOSTS ME: “Many times we have wanted to meet Chinese representatives,” including Xi, Zelenskyy said. “Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have any powerful connections with China because China does not want it.” Read here for the full story by Zoya, Suzanne and Stuart.
Ukraine plays nice with China no more: Zelenskyy’s unusually harsh stance on Beijing comes shortly after China refused to take part in the Swiss summit. China says it’s impossible for it to go, as Russia’s not invited.
China hit back at Zelenskyy: Beijing, which won’t show up at the Swiss conference, “[is] certainly not against the peace summit hosted by Switzerland,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told journalists on Monday, in response to Zelenskyy’s criticism.
“Hegemony and strong-arm politics is not China’s diplomatic style … There is no such thing as exerting pressure on other countries.” She added that China “also values the relationship with Ukraine.”
BEIJING AIN’T HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS: While few expected China’s new Defense Minister Adm. Dong Jun to go soft at Shangri-La, many delegates were still surprised at his harsh words on Taiwan and the Philippines, two of the biggest headaches facing China’s policymakers.
Fighting talk: “China stays committed to peaceful reunification. However, this prospect is increasingly being eroded by separatists for Taiwan independence and foreign forces,” Dong said. “We will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds.”
U.S. calls for calm: The Chinese military action was worrying enough to prompt U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to urge Dong not to “use Taiwan’s political transition — part of a normal, routine democratic process — as a pretext for coercive measures.”
The bilateral meeting also saw Austin make clear “that the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate — safely and responsibly — wherever international law allows.” He “underscored the importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Let’s talk: Austin and his Chinese counterpart will launch a bilateral grouping to address potential U.S.-China military crises. The two officials discussed “plans to convene a crisis-communications working group by the end of the year,” in their first-ever meeting on Friday. Senior former military officials have warned that the current state of U.S.-China military crisis communications systems are highly unreliable.
EU meets Dong: The new Chinese defense chief met the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and French minister of the armed forces Sébastien Lecornu. Borrell told POLITICO he had a “robust” meeting with Dong, saying he raised concerns over Taiwan and circumvention of EU sanctions against Russia.
The French, meanwhile, called on China to do more on nuclear non-proliferation, and discussed with Dong the side-by-side military bases in the East African state of Djibouti, with Paris keen on maintaining communication with Beijing on the activities of the two bases.
Dutch warship: Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren wasn’t pleased with China’s behavior in the South China Sea. Speaking to China Watcher in Singapore, Ollongren said while a Dutch warship passed through the Taiwan Strait uneventfully, a Dutch helicopter was being followed by a Chinese counterpart, despite the airspace being international. “That was remarkable,” she said. “We were in international waters, and our helicopter was in the air, but also in the international part.”
NEXT BIG PROBLEM — PHILIPPINES: Apart from Taiwan, China also got furious about the Philippines, whose President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos used an opening speech at Shangri-La to hit out at Beijing’s maritime behavior, warning that the killing of a Filipino citizen in such incidents could be construed as an act of war.
Crossing the Rubicon: “We had already suffered injury, but thank God, we have not yet gotten to the point where any of our participants, civilian or otherwise, have been killed,” said Marcos. “But once we get to that point, certainly we would have crossed the Rubicon. Is that a red line? Almost certainly it’s going to be a red line.”
BEIJING RETORTS: “Those remarks disregard history and facts and are designed to amplify the Philippines’ wrongful position on the issues concerning the South China Sea and deliberately distort and hype up the maritime situation,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a lengthy response.
The Philippines, it went on, “frequently infringed on China’s rights ,” accusing Manila of provoking the Chinese coast guard.  
Looking at you, Washington: “Who exactly does the Philippine foreign policy serve now? Whose bidding is the Philippines doing with all these maritime actions?” the Chinese government statement said. “The answer is pretty clear to anyone with sound judgement.”
TRADE CHIEFS BACK IN EUROPE: Less than two months after a visit to France, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao was back in Europe again, as Beijing makes a last-minute diplomatic charm offensive against the EU’s plan to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Speaking in Spain on Sunday, Wang threatened to take retaliatory action if the EU were to do so.
“China takes note of the repeated remarks by the French, German and EU leaders to avoid a trade war,” Wang said. “If the Europeans act differently, and keep suppressing Chinese companies, China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate interests of Chinese businesses.”
“The risk of China-EU trade friction is constantly on the rise,” he added.
What did he see? An EV plant of course! During his Spanish visit, Wang checked out a plant co-run by Spain’s auto company Ebro-EV Motors and China’s Chery Automobile. The plant is one of China’s moves to localize electric vehicle production on European soil. Wang had this message to Chery’s management: Speed up the production line, help contribute to Spain’s economy and employment. “Europe should abandon protectionism,” Wang added.
Deputy in Greece: Vice Commerce Minister Ling Ji meanwhile also spent his weekend in Europe. Inspecting Chinese companies in Greece, Ling had an even tougher message for Europe. “Since this year, the EU has disregarded the complementary cooperation between China and EU member states,” Ling said. “China will absolutely not allow the EU to play the old tricks again.”
MI6 ‘SPY’ UNDER ARREST: China on Monday accused Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) of recruiting a couple who worked for the Beijing government to spy for the U.K., less than a month after London arrested three people on suspicion of spying for the Hong Kong government.
The Chinese Ministry of State Security said on its WeChat account that MI6 operatives convinced a man surnamed Wang, who worked in a “core confidential role” in the central state apparatus, to defect along with his wife, surnamed Zhou. AFP has more.
CAMPBELL, MA MEETING READOUTS EVOKE YAWNS: Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu recited their standard positions on U.S.-China hot button issues in a meeting last week. Campbell raised Biden administration concerns including tensions across the Taiwan Strait, China Coast Guard incursions into Philippine waters of the South China Sea and China’s support for Russia’s war on Ukraine, said a State Department statement published Friday. Ma parried with Beijing’s usual rebuttals to those concerns while criticizing the administration’s China policy of “seeking dialogue and cooperation while undermining China’s interests,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout of the meeting published Friday. Ma spiced up his encounter with Campbell by describing the Biden administration’s “small yard and high fence” strategy behind U.S. restrictions on high technology exports to China as the “iron curtain in the big yard.” 
NEW VISA RESTRICTIONS FOR HK OFFICIALS: The Biden administration will impose visa restrictions on implicated Hong Kong officials as a reprisal for the guilty verdicts against 14 of the territory’s pro-democracy activists on Thursday. The administration “is taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on PRC and Hong Kong officials responsible for implementing the National Security Law,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement Friday.  Lawmakers are primed to pile-on. Congress “will consider a range of actions to hold  the PRC and the Hong Kong government accountable for this grave injustice,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in a statement Friday. Hong Kong authorities aren’t pleased. The visa restrictions “smack of despicable political manipulation to intimidate PRC and HKSAR officials who resolutely safeguard national security,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement Saturday.
RAHM ROASTS CHINA’S UKRAINE WAR NARRATIVE: U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, took to social media to rebuke a Chinese military official who blamed Russia’s war on Ukraine on NATO expansion in Europe. “China is lip-synching Russia’s excuse for its war with Ukraine by blaming @NATO—the alliance didn’t expand east. Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, and others expanded West,” Emanuel said on X on Sunday. That was a response to an assertion by Chinese Snr. Col. Cao Yanzhong at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday that “The eastern expansion of NATO has led to the Ukraine crisis,”per the Associated Press.
Bloomberg: China’s biggest cities see housing market pick up after easing.
Financial Times: Chinese businesses target Vietnam and Mexico as trade tensions with U.S. rise.
Reuters: China maintains stance on disputed Gulf islands despite Iran’s anger.
MANY THANKS: To editor Christian Oliver and producer Sasha Schroeder.
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