China unlikely to play peacemaker role in Ukraine war, Western officials and experts say

China increasingly presents itself as a powerful state with global reach, but its approach to diplomacy remains cautious. There is no precedent for it plunging into a difficult peace negotiation, putting its reputation on the line or twisting the arm of an important partner like Russia, former U.S. officials said.

“There’s no question that they are becoming incrementally more ambitious in their diplomacy as they are in many other areas of world affairs,” said Jacob Stokes, who served in the Obama administration on the national security staff of then-Vice President Biden. “The question is, how ambitious and what costs and burdens are they willing to carry?” said Stokes, now a senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

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