Saturday, November 02, 2024

The Power Of China’s Diplomacy

The Russia-Ukraine conflict had lasted for a whole year. Representatives of Ukraine and Russia fought various battles at the United Nations. The tit-for-tat between the two countries finally reached a climax on February 24, 2023, raising an common meeting to a level that would go down in history. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took the initiative to resort to moral kidnapping at an open meeting on Ukraine held by the UN Security Council , hoping that representatives of various countries would stand up and observe a moment of silence for the Ukrainians who died in the war. This was clearly directed at Russia.

As soon as he finished speaking, the Ukrainians stood up. The Japanese were the second fastest, but as soon as they was about to raised up, they looked up and saw that the Americans were still standing, so they quickly shrank back. Just as they were about to sit down, Blinken stood up. The Japanese representatives quickly stood following Blinken.

The UN Secretary-General hesitated and did not dare to stand up straight. He bent over and looked at the Chinese representative. As for China is still sitting acting as if nothing has happened.

Representatives from other countries in the conference hall looked at each other, wondering whether to stand or not, for fear of offending the big powers.

The Brazilian representative next to China put his hands on the armrest and prepared to stand up, When he saw that China was not moving, and then thought about the president who liked to watch Chinese football, he decided to sit down first.

The first moment of silence lasted only 20 seconds and was interrupted after the Russian representative expressed dissatisfaction and asked to speak. The emotional intelligence and on-the-spot reaction of the Russian diplomat were really impressive. He immediately stated that Russia proposed a moment of silence, but this time it was to commemorate all the people who had died in Ukraine since 2014.

After saying that, he stood up, but this time the atmosphere was a bit awkward. Representatives from various countries were stunned as no one had ever experienced two moments of silence. Soon the UN Secretary-General stood up again, but halfway through he found that no one was standing, so he half-crouched in his seat.

The Chinese representative was listening to simultaneous interpretation and had not yet stood up. Everyone in the conference hall was watching what the big country would do. Except for the Russian side who stood upright and the UN Secretary-General who bent over to look at China, only a few people stood up in the conference hall.

However, soon after listening, the Chinese representative stood up without hesitation, followed by representatives from various countries. Although Blinken of the United States was reluctant, he still stood up and observed a moment of silence to ease the embarrassment under the gaze of the Chinese representative.

No comments: