By Shakeel Ahmad Ramay

Chief Executive Officer,

Asian Institute of Eco-civilisation Research and Development

  Russia-Ukraine crisis is exposing the deep-rooted hypocrisy and self-centeredness of the West. The West has launched a campaign to show solidarity with Ukraine. The slogans of sovereignty, human rights and rule-based global system are back in business. The West is trying to act as staunch protector of values, human rights and sovereignty. It is engaged in skillfully crafting a campaign and a narrative, which suits its geo-political and geo-economic agenda. The Western elite using media to spread their message and media is showing great enthusiasm to act on behalf of them. Simultaneously, Russian media outlets and news agencies are being banned to kill any chance of difference of opinion, so that they manipulate their citizens according to their own preferences. In reality, the campaign is an absolute illusion because actions of the West don't support it. The West itself committed many crimes, starting from colonisation to modern days’ economic sanctioning. The West attacked courtiers e.g. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and looted their resources. The West is mum over the seizing of Kashmir and converting it into an open jail by the Indian occupied forces. The most obscure part of the campaign on Russia-Ukraine crisis is that it is targeting China for nothing. As we know, China is not part of the conflict and is trying to diffuse the situation. Unfortunately, Western countries are not ready to accept this fact and are busy in building a smear campaign against China. The situation triggered consensus among the larger community of independent experts that the real purpose of the West is to keep their hegemony alive. So, the West is trying to use Russian-Ukraine crisis to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, West wants to isolate Russia and destroy its economy. On the other, they are trying to frame China as ally of Russia to build a narrative against it. It is not new to China, as China is victim of Western harsh behavior since its independence. First, the West took many years to establish diplomatic relations with China. Second, the West is continuously violating sovereignty of China. Most prominent examples are Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong and Taiwan etc. The Western countries are neither respecting sovereignty of China over Taiwan nor adhering to One China Policy. The governments there are trying to establish Taiwan as a separate country. They are also selling arms to separatists and promoting local trouble-makers against the Mainland. Now the West is irritating China by equating situation of Ukraine with Taiwan, which has no rational, as we know Taiwan is integral part of China since ancient times. Hong Kong is another story to tell. Western powers are encouraging rioters to undermine writ of the government and destroy property of common citizens. In this context, it can be inferred the campaign against China has no rationale. China, as an independent and sovereign country, has right to adopt any policy which can help diffuse tension and bring peace back. Regrettably, the West is not ready to accept this. The reasons are obvious. Western countries want to check peaceful rise of China by erecting hurdles. It is a well known fact the West does not like rise of China, especially the Chinese model of development, as China is developing by sheer hard work and sticking to the global norms. It is completely opposite to the Western model of development, which was based on colonisation and committing genocides to secure resources. So, by creating hurdles or framing China with Russia, the West wants to create bad image of China and engage it in the conflict. Fortunately, China is not falling into the trap. Beijing is keeping a distance from the conflict and asking the parties to solve the issues through dialogue and consultations. Wang Yi, foreign minister of China, also echoed the same sentiments in his phone call to foreign minister of Ukraine. It is in line with the philosophy of China international relations, which hinges on engagement, consultation and sharing of prosperity for sustainable peace. As, Confucius said, “The best way to enhance international engagement and influence is to share prosperity”. President Xi Jinping is following this philosophy in true spirit and has made it prime goal for China that is “New Era”.