China asked Russia to postpone the invasion for the Olympics, says the NYT

The Chinese government asked Russia in early February not to start the invasion of Ukraine until after the Winter Olympics held in China, according to The New York Times (NYT), citing US government sources and to a European government source.

The newspaper notes that according to a “western intelligence report”, senior Chinese government officials had “some level of knowledge about Russian plans or intentions to go to war” before the beginning of the military aggression, which began on February 24, four days after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The information exchanged between members of the Chinese and Russian governments was collected by the intelligence services of a Western country, according to the sources, and shared at a high level during discussions about whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin would attack Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin They closed ranks against the West at a meeting held on February 4 in Beijing and promised to face together what they considered “security threats” after meeting on the eve of the opening of the Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital.

In a joint statement, both leaders expressed their opposition “to further expansion of NATO” and asked the Transatlantic Organization to abandon the “mentalities of the ‘cold war’” and to respect “the interests and sovereignty of other countries”.

According to British officials quoted by the NYT, this joint statement was a clear sign of Chinese support, something that Beijing would have been reluctant to do if Putin planned to darken the Olympics with an assault before the closing ceremony.

However, the newspaper points out that the sources do not agree on the level at which the talks on the invasion were held and on the request for its postponement.

According to a source quoted by the newspaper, the details about the attack did not have to be between Putin and Xi.

The newspaper also assures that, according to United States government sources, in half a dozen meetings between representatives of Washington and Beijing, including one with the Chinese ambassador hours before the beginning of the invasion, the officials showed their skepticism about a Russian attack against Ukraine.