BEIJING: China has called on Russia and Ukraine to ensure the safety of Ukraine's nuclear facilities, as fears mount over a potential environmental disaster amid an intensifying military offensive by Russia in the former Soviet state.
Addressing an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's top officials in Vienna on Wednesday, China's envoy Wang Qun said that China hopes that the relevant parties will act cautiously to avoid causing "man-made nuclear safety and security incidents."
"China is concerned about the safety, security and safeguards of nuclear facilities in Ukraine," Wang told the UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a Chinese statement in UN.
Without naming Russia or Ukraine, Wang urged the two countries to work to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities.
"The IAEA should also take full consideration of the security situation in Ukraine in accordance with its mandate and properly address the issue of security protection in Ukraine," Wang added.
Ukraine's nuclear energy development started in the Soviet era, with the construction of the Chernobyl power plant near the capital Kyiv in the 1970s.
Also in 2013 China has signed a joint statement with Ukraine saying that the Chinese government will provide security to Kyiv promising if Ukraine is invaded using nuclear weapons or threatened by such invasion.
Asked will China take measures to protect Ukraine's security as per its assurances as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country's nuclear forces to stay on high alert, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told media briefing here on Thursday that "according to documents such as statements made by states and the UN Security Council Resolution 984, nuclear-weapon states give security assurances to Ukraine and other non-nuclear-weapon states".
"The security assurances have clear limitations on the content and are triggered under specific conditions", he said.
"On the Ukraine issue, the pressing task now is for all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint, deescalate the situation and promote the political settlement," he said.
Ukraine, which became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, is now heavily dependent on nuclear energy, with 15 working reactors at four sites that generate about half of its electricity, the Post report said.
Concerns over the security of these nuclear facilities have been intensifying since Russian armed forces last Thursday captured the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of a deadly and environmentally damaging reactor accident in 1986, hours after President Putin ordered a, military operation, in neighbouring Ukraine.
China on Thursday denounced a report that it asked Russia to delay invading Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics as "fake news" and a "very despicable" attempt to divert attention and shift blame over the conflict.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin also repeated China's accusations that Washington provoked the war by not ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine.
"We hope the culprit of the crisis would reflect on their role in the Ukraine crisis, take up their responsibilities, and take practical actions to ease the situation and solve the problem instead of blaming others," Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.
"The New York Times report is purely fake news, and such behaviors of diverting attentions and shifting blames are very despicable," Wang said.
The Times article cited a "Western intelligence report" considered credible by officials.
"The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia's war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week," the Times wrote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on February 4, hours before the Games' opening ceremony.
Following that, the sides issued a joint statement in which they declared "friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no forbidden' areas of cooperation."
In that statement, China also endorsed Russia's opposition to further NATO expansion and demand that it "respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries."
Russia, for its part, reaffirmed its support for China's claim over Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing threatens to annex by force if necessary.
Russia had launched an attack on Georgia during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, angering some in the Chinese leadership and among the public.
The Times said it wasn't clear whether the communication about an invasion took place between Xi and Putin or at a lower level, but that the intelligence report indicated that "senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia's war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week."
China is the only major government that hasn't criticized Moscow's attack on Ukraine and has also ruled out joining the United States and European governments in imposing financial sanctions on Russia.
Instead, Beijing has endorsed the Russian argument that Moscow's security was threatened by NATO's eastern expansion.
China abstained in Wednesday's U.N. General Assembly emergency session vote to demand an immediate halt to Moscow's attack on Ukraine and the withdrawal of all Russian troops.
"Regrettably, the draft resolution submitted to the General Assembly emergency special session for vote had not undergone full consultations with the whole membership, nor does it take into consideration the history and the complexity of the current crisis," Wang said.
"It did not highlight the importance of the principle of indivisible security or the urgency of promoting political settlement and stepping up diplomatic efforts," he said.
"These are not in line with China's consistent position. Therefore, we had no choice but to abstain in the voting."
China is all set to commence its key annual Parliament season amid the global turmoil over the Ukraine crisis and the impending leadership overhaul later this year as Chinese President Xi Jinping is geared up to begin an unprecedented third term at the end of his 10-year tenure this year.
China's annual Parliament season lasting over two weeks' sessions of the national legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the advisory body Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will begin from Friday.
The CPPCC, which has 2,200 members mostly nominated by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) will begin its session on Friday, while NPC with a membership of 2,951 will commence its session from Saturday.
For over two weeks, the NPC, referred as the rubber stamp parliament for its routine approval of policies of the CPC, will transact annual legislative work including approving the work report to be submitted by Premier Li Keqiang in which China would outline its annual economic performance and announce new defence outlay besides other economic initiatives.
The significance of the two sessions this year is that this is the final year of the 2nd five-year tenure of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While all his predecessors retired after two five-year tenures, Xi is widely expected to continue in power perhaps for life.
His unprecedented third-term was expected to be formally conferred by the once-in-a-five-year CPC Congress to be held in next few months as a key party Plenum meet last year formally endorsed his continuation.
He is now equated with Party's founder Mao Zedong who held reins of power until his death in 1976.
While Xi, who heads the party, the military and Presidency is set to remain in power, the composition of the government was expected to change as most of his associates, including Premier Li, may be replaced under the two-tenure norm.
The two sessions were being held in the backdrop of Russia's military action on Ukraine which had created a global political crisis not seen in recent times testing China's close ties with Russia.
Also, Beijing is also faced with major political and trade onslaught from the US, European Union and their allies over a host of issues including human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
The global attention was also fixated on Taiwan, which fears an impending military action from China as the Chinese military ratcheted up tensions conducting hundreds of air raids into Taiwan's air defence zone.
Ahead of the two sessions, China on Thursday launched a blistering attack on American democracy, saying that the US uses democracy as a pretext to serve its own interests.
Guo Weimin, spokesperson of CPPCC, in his customary press conference ahead of the Friday's session said "democracy is diverse in its forms, and is not a patent held by a few countries."
China claims itself as "People's Democracy".
The purposes for the United States to convene the so-called "Summit for Democracy" are to suppress others, divide the world while maintaining its hegemony, Guo said while answering a question.
"The democratic systems of countries should be chosen independently by their own peoples based on national conditions."
Guo criticised some Western countries for imposing their democratic systems on other countries through "colour revolutions," which have caused serious disasters.
He also hailed China's "whole-process people's democracy" and the roles the CPPCC has played in facilitating scientific and democratic decision-making through consultation, oversight, participation, and cooperation.