China claims 85% of world rejects Russia sanctions

China and the "85% who don't sanction Russia"

A tweet, an image, and one phrase. The message attributed to Lijian Zhao — presented as China's Foreign Minister, a role another source explicitly denies — sums it up: "Only the majority stands for the international community." The accompanying image claims that 85% of the international community has not sanctioned Russia. The remaining 15%, implied, is the West. No further explanation needed.

The tweet does not specify how many countries make up that 85% or what criteria were used. It doesn't matter. What reads clearly is the gesture: someone presented as a Chinese official stating publicly that most of the planet is not aligned with Washington. Below this, a word begins to repeat: multipolar.

The figure no one can verify

The percentage is rough and thus debated. A calculation circulating in the same conversation lowers the bloc to 10%, arguing that much of the rest has already shifted through other channels and that the real distribution differs. No one provides a complete census. What does appear is an interpretation of China's stance supported by a statement reported by La Vanguardia: Beijing would not aspire to replace the United States as the hegemonic power, only to maintain its territorial integrity and sphere of influence. Hence the term multipolar, and hence the reference to BRICS as the bloc beginning to speak for itself.

At the other extreme, the objection is that a multipolar world with unchecked Chinese growth is also bad news for everyone: the economy devouring markets eventually imposes conditions. This tension runs through the entire discussion and is not resolved by any headline.

Who really pays for Russia sanctions?

On this point, differing viewpoints coincide: Europe foots the bill. The recurring argument is that Brussels shot itself in the foot with restrictions on supplies it needs, and that punishing the supplier ultimately raises consumer bills. The domestic analogy circulating: turning off the water main in your own apartment building to punish the utility company, ending up buying bottled water at several times the price.

There is an additional, more uncomfortable thesis: that the United States, Canada, and the UK announce sanctions but then apply them via backdoors, while the European Union adheres strictly to them. This relies on information from El Periódico de España. If true — and it should be taken as such, a circulating claim rather than proven fact — the cost distribution would be textbook.

The toll of the dollar and the euro

Here the analysis turns macro. It is argued that the West has lived beyond its means because the rest of the world needs dollars and euros for trade; that these banknotes are issued by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank essentially out of thin air; and that this has functioned as a silent tax on foreign production. The breakdown of how this cost transfers to the real economy is lengthy and merits a full discussion.

The conclusion drawn: February 2022 broke something. Not because of tanks, but because someone said aloud that the emperor had no clothes. The world will take time to notice, but the euro and the dollar, it is argued, have begun to lose influence.

China, the amoeba that fattened the West

Against the narrative of the Asian giant as pure threat, the uncomfortable question appears: who fed it? The answer given is that interest in the Chinese market was present in all Western multinationals, that industrial offshoring was designed from here, and that elites assumed they could control its economy and, with it, its politics. It did not go as planned, and now the miscalculation is returned to them in the form of a tweet.

Meanwhile, diplomatic lists continue their course. Among the friendly states managed by Russia are Burundi, Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, Sudan, Uganda, Chad, Ethiopia, and South Africa. With that map on the table, the 85% ceases to be a headline and becomes a question: if the majority does not sanction, who sustains the system required to enforce sanctions?