China Rebukes Russia’s Nuclear Threats in Ukraine for First Time

Messrs. Xi and Scholz agreed to oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Scholz and a report by Xinhua, which normally echoes Beijing’s official positions.

The international community should “oppose the use of or the threat to use nuclear weapons, advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used and that nuclear wars must not be fought, and prevent a nuclear crisis in Eurasia,” Mr. Xi said according to Xinhua.

The comment, the first rebuke of its kind attributed to the Chinese leader since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, marks a change in tone for Beijing after the government there said last week that it would deepen its cooperation with Russia at all levels, experts said.

“Beijing genuinely does not want a nuclear attack or war,” said Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst with the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

“Opposing the use of nuclear weapons and threats is a low hanging fruit and low-cost statement to achieve international approval and positive spillover for the German-China relationship, and perhaps that with the EU, too,” she added.

While Mr. Xi’s comments would be noted in Moscow, said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, they should not be read as meaning China would be willing or able to influence any decision by the Kremlin to escalate the war by using nonconventional weapons.

“The brutal reality is if Putin gets to the point where he is willing to use nuclear weapons, Beijing’s leverage over him is close to zero,” he said, referring to Russian President

Vladimir Putin.

Efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict and avoiding a greater humanitarian crisis are also required, the Chinese leader said, according to Xinhua.

Mr. Putin has made several thinly veiled threats about using nuclear weapons in Ukraine or against Kyiv’s allies if they got too deeply involved in the conflict. Open nuclear threats against North Atlantic Treaty Organization members are aired almost daily by Russian state broadcasters. Last week, Mr. Putin and Russian diplomats seemed to reverse course, with the Russian president saying there was no need to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine.

Russia’s armed forces are believed by Western experts to have as many as 2,000 so-called tactical nuclear weapons stored in special locations around the country, including some located close to Ukraine. These weapons, which include artillery shells, have much smaller yields than the warheads in the American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals but can inflict far bigger damage than conventional ordnance.

The rhetoric has caused Western leaders to grow alarmed that Mr. Putin could seek to reverse his troops’ poor showing on the battlefield by detonating a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

“We agree that nuclear threats are extremely dangerous,” Mr. Scholz, the first Group of Seven leader to visit Beijing since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, tweeted after his meeting with Mr. Xi. “The use of such weapons would cross a red line,” he added.

He also said that he asked Mr. Xi to bring his influence on Russia to bear.

—Laurence Norman contributed to this article.

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com