Experts say superpower China, as a business partner, is egocentric and focused on short-term benefits. Those are challenges for Ukraine, whose entire population is only twice the size of Beijing's metropolitan area.
Ukraine, however, has the grain and machinery that China’s rapidly growing economy needs.
President Petro Poroshenko met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January to talk about a currency swap between the two countries. Keqiang also offered China’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, now under challenge by Russia while Poroshenko invited China’s leader Xi Jinping to visit Ukraine.
In December 2013, Jinping met in Beijing with then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was desperately seeking an ally in the midst of the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted him on Feb. 21. But he got no help.
While not a giant, Ukraine cannot be ignored because of its size and proximity to European Union nations. While Ukraine has decided to align with Europe, there’s nothing about this policy choice that contradicts having closer ties with China.
Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can be reached at [email protected].
