China’s special representative Li Hui arrived in Kyiv on May 17 for talks with high-ranking Ukrainian officials. Hui is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The trip, according to Beijing, is aimed at discussing the “political settlement” of the war waged by Russia against Ukraine.
It is not known whether President Volodymyr Zelenskyi will meet with Lee during his trip.
Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs and former ambassador to Russia, will also visit Poland, France and Germany during a multi-day trip, China’s Foreign Ministry announced on May 12. The detailed schedule of trips is unknown.
At the end of April, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China reported that a diplomat who will visit Ukraine on a special mission will be Li Huithe special representative of the Chinese government on Eurasian affairs.
Li Hui, who turns 70 this year, is a veteran of Chinese diplomacy. In the 1980s, he served in the Chinese embassy in the USSR, and in the late 1990s he was the ambassador to Kazakhstan. Subsequently, he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, and from 2009 to 2019 – the Chinese Ambassador to Russia. He speaks Russian fluently.
Beijing previously put forward its 12-point “peace plan” calling for de-escalation and a permanent ceasefire in Ukraine. The West is skeptical of China’s proposals for a political settlement in Ukraine. The plan has been largely rejected by the West because of China’s refusal to condemn Russia for invading its sovereign neighbor and because it echoes Russian arguments, including accusing the West of an unprovoked invasion.
