Against Beijing and the Russian Federation: why Chinese volunteers are fighting for Ukraine

Tim (name changed, editor's note) is a 43-year-old Chinese citizen who decided to fight for Ukraine after July 8, 2024, when Russia launched a massive missile attack on the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in downtown Kyiv, turning the country's largest children's clinic into ruins. He says that the reason for his decision was anger, writes The Guardian. Tim was delivering humanitarian aid to the outskirts of Kyiv when he heard a shell fly overhead.

Soon he saw news on his phone that the children's hospital had been damaged. Together with his friend from Great Britain, a citizen of China rushed to the scene to help in the rescue work. "When I saw the severed limbs, some of which belonged to children, I cried. I thought about how angry Chinese people are. When it flares up. . . It is very strong. I decided to join the army," said Tim, a father of two. Now he is engaged in the design of drones.

And Tim is one of the few Chinese who have defied their government and public opinion, risking their lives to resist the invasion of Beijing's most important geopolitical partner, Russia. Tim came to Ukraine in July 2023. He has been anxiously watching the situation in China for months, occasionally donating money to online aggregators for humanitarian aid. But he wanted to do more. "I was unemployed in China at the time.

I just wanted to go to Ukraine as a volunteer - to see the struggling country and give the donations that many of my close friends gave me to help the needy," Tim recalls. So he applied for a business visa through an agent in China and embarked on a long journey to the West. Like many Chinese volunteers, Tim is driven by a combination of sympathy for the Ukrainian cause and growing despair at his country's actions. Before coming to Ukraine, the only country he visited outside of China was Japan.

However, he had been thinking about emigrating for more than ten years. "Fifteen years ago, you could see problems, talk about them freely, and there were people willing to discuss them," Tim says of China, noting that those days have passed. He learned about the war in Ukraine by using a VPN connection to watch videos on YouTube, which is blocked in China. "I don't read news from Chinese websites at all. . . because all the news there is fake," he said.

He decided to stay in Ukraine because it has a "bright future". In his opinion, only a few dozen people joined the ranks of the Armed Forces from the People's Republic of China. And at the same time, China's attitude towards Russia is ambiguous.

Many in China have never forgiven Tsarist Russia for annexing large territories in the Qing dynasty at the end of the 19th century, but the war in Ukraine in China was accompanied by aggressive propaganda from the state media, which blamed the crisis on the United States. Beijing officially declares its neutrality in the conflict and calls for peace.

However, Chinese President Xi Jinping supported his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin throughout the war, and Western analysts believe that it will be very difficult for Moscow to continue military operations without China's economic support. Two-way trade between the two countries has reached record highs since the 2022 invasion. China is not believed to provide direct military aid, but exports of components used to make weapons, such as fiber optic cables, have increased sharply.

Components are also supplied to Ukraine, but in much smaller quantities. A study by Tao Wang of the University of Manchester found that 80% of Chinese surveyed held pro-Russian views in the first year of the war, and that "government-controlled media succeeded in swaying public opinion in favor of Russia" as the war progressed. However, according to Wang, "a significant part of the Chinese population, which sympathizes with Ukraine, remains practically unnoticed.

" People are often afraid to openly express their views because it is "considered unconventional". But they go to Ukraine not only because of their political views, but also because of unemployment. Another Chinese volunteer, Fan, whose name has also been changed, came to Kyiv because, according to him, he has no future in China. His business was destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic.

And he was inspired to move by the story of Chinese volunteer Peng Chenliang from the Armed Forces, who heroically died in November 2024. "At home, I was doing almost nothing. . . I couldn't live this unremarkable life anymore. I wanted to do something meaningful," Fan said. At the same time, Chinese social networks are full of videos advertising the benefits of mercenaries in favor of Russia. Finding information on how to fight for Ukraine is much more difficult, so Fan turned to ChatGPT.

In the end, he got to the Military Commissariat in Lviv, leaving his wife and daughter in China. With no military experience, but a passion for playing with drones, he was sent as a drone operator to the front line in eastern Ukraine, but the language barrier forced him to be recalled from the combat zone. Now he spends his days guarding the warehouse. "It gets a little lonely," he said. But he passes the time by practicing the Ukrainian language.

Fan has not yet figured out how to move his family to Ukraine, but returning to China could be dangerous. Chinese law does not prohibit citizens from joining foreign armies unless it poses a threat to China's national security, but many fear retaliation. Another Chinese soldier in the Armed Forces, who asked to be called by his callsign Brunko, said that China's national security police interrogated his family. And Tim believes that the time spent in Ukraine serves many purposes.

When asked why he is ready to risk his life for another country, he answered that his main goal is to build a new life for himself and his family in Europe. "Secondly, I want to show the world that there are many Chinese people like me. I want the world not to lose hope in China. In fact, there are many good people and positive ideas in China," he said.