When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

How Much Does Xi Jinping Care About Putin's ICC Arrest Warrant?

After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow for a three-day visit. How far will he be willing to go to support Putin, a fugitive from international justice?

Photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev

Extended meeting of Russian Interior Ministry board on Monday, March 20

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin said last year that the friendship between their nations was "boundless," the world has wondered where the limits really lie. The Chinese president's three-day visit to Russia, which began Monday, gives us an opportunity to assess.

Xi's visit is important in many ways, particularly because the International Criminal Court has just issued an arrest warrant against Putin for his role in forcibly sending thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. For Putin, there could be no better response to this international court, which he does not recognize, than to appear alongside the president of a great country, which, like Russia, is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council. How isolated can Putin really be, when the leader of 1.5 billion people in China comes to visit?


The news reinforces the highly political nature of the Chinese leader's visit. By going ahead with his meeting with a man wanted by the ICC, Xi strengthens Russia and China's common front, facing off against an international order shaped by the West. Although in this case, it's only half true, because neither the United States, Russia nor China recognizes the court's jurisdiction — a telling paradox.

Between alliance and provocation

The political dimension is clear, but it remains to be seen what practical implications Xi Jinping's visit will have — and in particular, whether it will shed light on a key question from the past year: how far will China go in its support of Russia? Could it go as far as delivering lethal weapons to Russia?

So far, China has been careful not to do so, despite a significant increase in trade between the two countries. The delivery of weapons would likely result in Western sanctions, at a time when the Chinese economy is already slowing.

It is more likely that Xi will engage in a subtle balancing act between anti-American rhetoric and a desire to present himself to the world as a man of peace.

Cultivating China's place in the world

Last month, China presented a peace plan for Ukraine. The plan contains nothing too concrete, but it could go further during this trip, if only to bolster China's peaceful image among countries in the Global South.

These visits are not the actions of a man who's about to end a war that he sees as a civilizational conflict.

Can Xi really help to end the war? Not at this stage, judging by two highly symbolic visits made by Putin ahead of Xi's arrival: first to Crimea, and then, for the first time, Mariupol, the Ukrainian coastal city conquered at a high price last year, and from which a thousand children were taken to Russia.

These visits are not the actions of a man who's about to end a war that he sees as a civilizational conflict; they are a gesture of defiance, a sign that the war is not over.

Xi has a different agenda. It is political, and that of the emerging superpower. He does not want to let go of Putin or be drawn into a war that is not his; and, above all, he is cultivating China's place in the world at a time when tensions with the United States are running high. We'll be watching Moscow until Wednesday as he tries to achieve this delicate balance.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

Palestinian Olive Trees Are Also Under Israeli Occupation — And That's Not A Joke

In the West Bank, a quieter form of oppression has been plaguing Palestinians for a long time. Their olive groves are surrounded by soldiers, and it's forbidden to harvest the olives – this economic and social violence has gotten far worse since Oct. 7.

A Palestinian woman holds olives in her hands

In a file photo, Um Ahmed, 74, collects olives in the village of Sarra on the southwest of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mohammed Turabi/ZUMA
Francesca Mannocchi

HEBRON – It was after Friday prayers on October 13th of last year, and Zakaria al-Arda was walking along the road that crosses his property's hillside to return home – but he never made it.

A settler from Havat Ma'on — an outpost bordering Al-Tuwani that the United Nations International Law and Israeli law considers illegal — descended from the hill with his rifle in hand.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

After kicking al-Arda, who tried to defend himself, the settler shot him in the abdomen. The bullet pierced through his stomach, a few centimeters below the lungs. Since then, al-Arda has been in the hospital in intensive care. A video of those moments clearly shows that neither al-Arda nor the other worshippers leaving the mosque were carrying any weapons.

The victim's cousin, Hafez Hureini, still lives in the town of Al-Tuwani. He is a farmer, and their house on the slope of the town is surrounded by olive trees — and Israeli soldiers. On the pine tree at the edge of his property, settlers have planted an Israeli flag. Today, Hafez lives, like everyone else, as an occupied individual.

He cannot work in his greenhouse, cannot sow his fields, and cannot harvest the olives from his precious olive trees.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest