It is somewhat ironic, President Xi (isn’t it?), that, as a strongman ruler who likes being in total control, the perfect position you found for yourself last week was being just another spectator. You were in control of absolutely nothing that was exploding half a world away, in Ukraine. Yet your global reputation was going to suffer considerable collateral damage.
And that’s where you were able to see precisely the danger I was discussing with you in my Dec. 10 column. I wrote then that you could learn a lot from your next-door neighbor, Vladimir Putin – “not about what to do, but about what not to do.”
Tragically, as you and the whole world watched with disbelieving eyes, Putin launched what was quickly denounced as the largest invasion of a sovereign European country since Adolf Hitler’s Nazis conquered Germany’s neighbors. Putin even stunningly declared he intends to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. Why? Because Ukraine wants to join NATO and trade with the European Union.
On Feb. 4, the world had watched you and Putin side-by-side at the Beijing Winter Olympics, posing in a quickie partnership of political convenience. We all understood the border-politics parallels. Ukraine/Taiwan: two democracies whose people speak the language of a dictatorial motherland they reject.
So you and Putin issued a non-Olympic statement warning NATO not to expand. Never mind that you never mentioned “Ukraine” (because you dare not suggest it might be OK to invade and liberate a sovereign place that could be Taiwan or Hong Kong). So you posed with Putin peacocking beside you to wink-wink make the world think you’ll prop him up if the world sanctions Russia massively after he bombs and blasts Ukraine. And you beamed as he strutted, as if you were all-in on the deal.