When Li Hui starts his European trip this Monday, China’s special envoy for the Ukraine war should know every door, at least in Moscow. As a young diplomat, he witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union from Moscow in 1991. Later, Li served as ambassador to Russia for ten years. At the end of his time as ambassador, he was awarded the Russian “Order of Friendship” by President Vladimir Putin in 2019. Since then, Li has headed the Department of Eurasian Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Head of state and party leader Xi Jinping announced the trip of the special envoy at the end of April in his first telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the beginning of the war. Li is said to be in talks with all parties on a “political” solution. The trip will take Li alongside Russia and Ukraine to Germany, France and Poland, as the latter are “among the main suppliers of arms and financial support” to Ukraine, People’s University politics professor Wang Yiwei told the South China Morning Post .
