| Today, news agencies broke two news stories that are worth a closer look as both seem to indicate that China has ambitions to help solve the two wars at the gate of the EU. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a peace conference about the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as he addressed Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing. This came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said China could arrange a peace conference where Russia and Ukraine would participate. Let’s start by stressing that China’s diplomatic capacity should not be underestimated. It surprised everyone last March, when Beijing brokered a deal restoring ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, respectively, the two leading Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim powers in the Middle East. But another bit of news today appeared to pour cold water over such ambitions. The US accused China’s leadership of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, warning that Beijing could consequently face further sanctions from Washington and NATO countries. How do we connect the dots? Is the US trying to prevent China from rendering precious services to the profit of our continent, at a time when EU diplomacy has apparently run out of resources? China, a communist country and, by Western standards, a dictatorship, is better known for its “Wolf diplomacy”, a term coined from the title of a Chinese action film. Wolf warrior diplomacy is aggressive and combative, with its proponents denouncing any perceived criticism of the Chinese government, its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and associated policies, in the media and online, as well as using physical violence against protestors and dissidents. In the case of the Gaza war and the Russian aggression against Ukraine, however, we are talking about a different type of Chinese diplomacy, the one characterised by its strategic long-term approach. | 