China may use Ukraine war as bargaining chip in talks with U.S. — analyst

Volodymyr Horbach, the Executive Director of the Institute of North Eurasia Transformation, stated this on Espreso TV.

“Right now, the season of U.S.-China negotiations is beginning. There will be a series of meetings that will last a month, perhaps even longer. Then Trump plans to visit Beijing at the beginning of the year, and afterward, he will invite Xi Jinping to Washington, and so on,” he said.

The analyst emphasized that the key focus for China at this moment is negotiations with the United States.

“And there, China can bargain for a lot — more than just 50 billion for Russia — but rather for itself. For the Chinese, it is more important to fool Trump, figuratively speaking, than to save Putin. And deceiving Trump through some leverage over Putin could also be an option for China. In negotiations, the Chinese could even play the Russia–Ukraine war card in exchange for economic preferences or concessions from Trump. I’m not saying this is what will happen, I’m not saying such talks are happening directly, but I am saying it is entirely possible,” Horbach concluded.

• On September 16, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump reached an agreement with Beijing that allows the Chinese company ByteDance to keep TikTok operating in the United States.