Pope of Beijing: China reactivates fifth column of 'peacekeepers'

The meeting of world leaders, actively lobbied for by Ukraine, has prompted Beijing to dispatch its diplomats to capitals around the world. Their task is to articulate Moscow's demands as conditions for participating in the negotiations, claims South China Morning Post.

• First: The West halts arms shipments to Ukraine.
• Second: Zelenskyy reverses the decree signed in October 2022 banning negotiations with Putin.
• Spoiler: Sources from the South China Morning Post in various EU capitals have stated that "this will never happen" as long as Russia continues to attack on the front lines. Additionally, Europeans believe that Moscow at the summit "will be so demanding and rude that everything will end before the discussion even begins."

Beijing is persistent in pushing the Kremlin to attend the same summit, so following China's lead, the fifth "blue helmet column" marched out. These are the same "peacekeepers with a grenade" who provided informational support during the previous "peaceful tour" of Beijing's special representative Li Hui: Orban, Fico, Erdogan, and... the Pope. Back then, they referred to the "bunker guy" as a "good guy," urging to save face for him and sit down with him at the table.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently stated that his country is ready to host a "peace summit" on its territory to end the war in Ukraine, but only if the aggressor country Russia participates. Hungarian and Slovakian prime ministers share the same sentiment.

The situation with Switzerland is particularly amusing: as a potential organizer of the summit, it insists on inviting Moscow to the "peace forum," while simultaneously a journalist from the Swiss television company RSI interviews the Pope and asks about a white flag for Ukraine. And the Pontiff tactfully hints to the TV journalist: supposedly, Ukraine must find the courage to capitulate and agree to negotiations. It turned out to be a completely unbuyable story.

The Vatican has already clarified that the Pope's words were misunderstood and he was not talking about capitulation... and in general, journalists allegedly misrepresented the Pope's statements.

The Vatican is not unfamiliar with having to apologize for the Pope’s words. Not long ago, the Holy See also had to declare that the head of the church was misunderstood. Remember how Francis praised the greatness of Russia: "The cruelty, which is not of the Russian people... because the Russian people are a great people...  I have high esteem for the Russian people, for Russian humanism."

And he also prayed for "innocently killed" Dugin, planned to visit Russia in the spring of 2023, and from the Russian side, to visit Donbas.

The reason for the pathological Russophilia lies in the Holy See's excessive sensitivity to China: the Vatican seeks to obtain loyalty from the People's Republic of China in exchange for the restoration of the unitary Chinese Catholic Church in the Celestial Empire, which comprises hundreds of millions of believers.

That's why today the Vatican behaves as if Jesus Christ were Chinese, and his earthly messenger became Xi. Pope Francis openly plays into the hands of the great world dictatorship: note that he doesn't call on Putin to gather courage and withdraw the occupying army from Ukrainian territory…

The democratic world needs to seriously consider whether the Vatican's prayers are detrimental to democracy and security. And at the same time, find a common solution regarding whether Putin can be defeated. The West has already decided that he cannot win, but it turns out that this is not enough.

About the author. Orest Sokhar, journalist, editor-in-chief of Obozrevatel

The editorial board does not always share the opinions expressed by blog authors.