What did China's 12-point paper change on 24 February 2023?
A look back at China's position paper on the war in Ukraine and Kyiv's response, set beside a Russian decree on Moldova.
What did China's new position paper mean for Ukraine on 24 February 2023? On that date, China unveiled a 12-point position paper on ending the war in Ukraine, ahead of an expected speech by President Xi Jinping on the conflict.
Ukraine responded by saying it hoped China could urge Russia to withdraw its troops in response to the paper. That framing placed the emphasis on Russian withdrawal, the outcome Kyiv sought from any diplomatic initiative.
The paper formed part of the wider debate over Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations and China's role in the war. Its publication ahead of an expected address by Xi Jinping showed that Beijing was setting out its position in public rather than leaving it unstated.
Two days earlier, on 22 February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin had revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree. That decree had underpinned Moldova's sovereignty in resolving the political status of the breakaway Transnistria region. The revocation concerned Moldova–Russia relations and Russia–Transnistria relations.
Taken together, the two developments showed diplomacy moving on separate tracks: Kyiv looking to Beijing to press Moscow, and Moscow altering a decree that had bearing on Moldova's sovereignty.
