‘This could be very, very embarrassing for China’
There will be different consequences for the war in Ukraine depending on the identity and allegiances of the Chinese soldiers captured, analyst Michael Clarke says.
“If they are just Chinese individuals who are fighting effectively as mercenaries, then that’s obviously embarrassing to China. But in a way, it goes no further than that,” he says.
“If they are just Chinese individuals who are fighting effectively as mercenaries, then that’s obviously embarrassing to China. But in a way, it goes no further than that,” he says.
Clarke says if the soldiers are operating on Chinese state orders, it would cross “quite a big legal line” and be “very, very embarrassing” for Beijing.
“That would mean that the Chinese are sending individuals to fight in a contested area to join an invasion of a foreign country,” he says.
“The Chinese would pretend that that isn’t the truth, that isn’t the truth. And the Russians would say that Donetsk is Russian territory, but legally, of course, it isn’t.
“It’s Ukrainian territory, and it has been since 1991.”
