Photo: CFP

China is not the creator of the crisis, nor a party directly concerned. The country has not provided weapons to any party involved in the crisis and will never accept criticism, pressure or sanctions thrown at it,Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said at Tuesday's press conference.

The Ukraine crisis is a tragedy that could have been prevented and the essence of the conflict is an explosion of Europe's security governance conflicts, Qin made the remarks when attending the press conference during the two sessions.

In answering a question from the Global Times about some Western countries seeking to attack China, demanding China "not to provide lethal weapon to Russia" and hyping the notion that only China can end the crisis, Qin said that  China is not the creator of the crisis, nor a party directly concerned. China has not provided weapons to any party involved in the crisis, so the country will never accept criticism, pressure or sanctions thrown at it.

China always considers the right and wrong of the incident, makes its own judgement independently, and always chooses peace over conflict; always chooses dialogue over sanctions; and always chooses de-escalation over adding fuel to the fire, said Qin.

A few days ago, China put forward a 12-point proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine, including respecting the sovereignty of all countries, abandoning the Cold War mentality, ceasing hostilities, and resuming peace talks, said Qin.

But sadly, the effort in pushing for peace talks has repeatedly been sabotaged, just like there is an "invisible hand" pushing the conflict to escalate in order to achieve a certain geopolitical purpose, said Qin.

Currently, the Ukraine crisis has entered a key juncture, in which parties can choose between a ceasefire, restoring peace and walking on the right track of political settlement; or escalate the conflict, dragging themselves into uncontrollable abyss. Sanctions and pressure cannot solve the problem, and calm, reasonable dialogue should be started as soon as possible, said Qin, adding that the reasonable concerns of all parties should be respected to find a long-term solution for European peace.

Global Times