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| Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, reviews a military honor guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, June 8, 2018. Chinese consumers are stepping up to support Russian and Ukrainian businesses, with some flocking to Russian-run e-commerce stores on JD.com, while others are queuing up to dine at a Ukrainian restaurant in Beijing. AP-Yonhap |
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, Beijing has been at pains not to condemn its strategic partner, but it has not approved of Moscow's military action either.
Some Chinese shoppers, however, are taking a more conspicuous stand in support of Russia by buying snacks, tea and other merchandise from the online "Russian State Pavilion" store, which claims to be endorsed by the Russian Embassy in Beijing.
Numerous items ― including tea, KDV candies and chocolate wafers ― were sold out Friday evening and followers of the store quadrupled to more than 40,0000 in a couple days.
A video posted on the e-commerce site of Sergey Batsev, a China representative for Business Russia, thanked Chinese shoppers for their support of "Russia and Russia State Pavilion at this difficult time." It quickly went viral on social media, with a flood of comments expressing support for Moscow and anti-U.S. sentiment.
Despite a surge of pro-Russian support on China's social media, there are numerous Chinese citizens acting in solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
A Chinese employee at Google China, who refused to reveal his identity, said he donated $1,000 ― with the same amount matched by his company ― to help Ukrainians.
"Wars cannot be rationalized," he said. "No matter what, Ukraine people will be the ones suffering the most during the war. My donation is for humanitarian reasons.
"I also disapprove of any diplomatic excuses [Vladimir] Putin used to wage the war. I support anything that's on the opposing side of this and the autocratic governments such as Russia and China.
"I hope that the pro-democracy movements in the West can prevail in Russia and China, and possibly overthrow the autocracies."
Kievruss, said to be the only authentic Ukraine restaurant in Beijing, quickly gained fame after the war broke out, as some diners on Twitter, Weibo and Dazhong Dianping ― a Yelp-like customer review site ― have recorded their recent visits in support of Ukraine.
Xu Xiaodong, a Chinese mixed martial artist with 241,000 Twitter followers, posted his visit to Kievruss earlier this week.
"Not sure how to support, so I went to the 22-year-old Kievruss restaurant in west Beijing for lunch today," he wrote on Twitter. "Everything I ate was Ukrainian food, which made me feel better.
"Wish the war be over and the war criminals go to hell."
Another Beijing resident, who gave their name as Jakie Lee, said they would visit the restaurant to support people in Ukraine. The person also bought the same pullover shirt worn by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky from American brand Royal Robbins's 5.11 tactical series.
"War is one autocrat sending one civilian's son to kill another civilian's son, so we must be anti-war," Lee said.
"Civilians are always going to be the most direct victims of the catastrophe, and we are all civilians, so we should think about war from the perspective of a civilian, rather than hotheadedly be excited over war, that's not normal.
"I can only stand for myself and say sorry to Ukrainian people, and I hope that Ukraine people would be nice to our Chinese people who are still yet to be evacuated from the country."
