Sari Arho Havrén
President Stubb has no illusions about China backing Russia in its war against Ukraine. He has said this in multiple settings. He has also said: “You cannot trust Putin. You cannot make a deal with Putin, because that basically means a deal also with China.” However, Stubb called the assurance “a fairly effective deterrent”. In my view, that's a contestable sentence, not because the Chinese position would be insincere, but because it’s costless. Beijing spends nothing restraining Russia from something Russia was unlikely to do anyway, and gets public credit from a European head of state for it. The reasonable critique concerns how much deterrence weight to place on a private assurance and the reputational transfer that occurs when it’s relayed publicly. That’s an argument about calibration, but it's not about capture, and it’s a very different thing from accusing him of parroting Beijing.
Theresa Fallon
👀President Stubb appears to be one of Beijing’s captured elites. He repeats Chinese Communist speaking points on Russia’s threat to use nukes. Wang Yi stated, “We won’t let that happen” is cheap rhetoric. How can Stubb ignore Beijing’s support for Russia’s horrendous war in Ukraine? How can he remain silent on 🇷🇺🇨🇳training of each others troops? How can he forget the evidence of 🇷🇺🇨🇳joint military projects? European leaders need less “China fantasy”and more fact based reality.