China’s Probe: The Test Flare Before the Fire

Blinken’s Playbook in Reverse: China’s Calculated Leak

It was a test flare.

A probe.

A calculated leak to measure the West’s response.

According to an exclusive report published by the South China Morning Post, “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing did not want to see a Russian loss in Ukraine because it feared the United States would then shift its whole focus to Beijing, according to several people familiar with the exchange.

The comment, to the EU’s Kaja Kallas, would confirm what many in Brussels believe to be Beijing’s position but jar with China’s public utterances. The foreign ministry regularly says China is “not a party” to the war. Some EU officials involved were surprised by the frankness of Wang’s remarks.

However, Wang is said to have rejected the accusation that China was materially supporting Russia’s war effort, financially or militarily, insisting that if it was doing so, the conflict would have ended long ago.”

The South China Morning Post isn’t a direct mouthpiece like People’s Daily or Global Times, but it plays a deliberate soft power role. In 2016, it was acquired by Alibaba Group — the tech empire…