EU Criticizes Beijing’s Support for War in Ukraine After Xi’s ‘Peace or War’ Comment

‘These aren’t just anti-Western optics: This is a direct challenge to the international system built on rules,’ says EU’s head of foreign affairs.

EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, addresses a press conference after an informal meeting for EU foreign ministers' at the Forum Copenhagen, Denmark, on Aug. 30, 2025. Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s Sept. 3 remarks at a parade held in Beijing to celebrate a war anniversary drew criticism from the European Union when he proclaimed that the Chinese people under the CCP stood “on the right side of history.”

Xi was flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in photo ops, forming what analysts have described as a new axis that seeks to upend the international order. Two dozen other foreign heads of state were also in attendance.