Chinese readout warns of rising turmoil in veiled swipe at Washington and Trump as Beijing strengthens ties with Moscow
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenMark Magnierin New YorkPublished: 3:59am, 15 Apr 2026Russia and China’s top envoys met in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the Iran war, Ukraine and Taiwan as Beijing stepped up its Iran war diplomacy and tensions with Washington increased.
In a jab at Washington and US President Donald Trump that did not mention either by name, a Chinese readout of the meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov noted that the world is increasingly marked by turmoil and instability.
“The current international situation is experiencing severe turbulence, the harm of unilateral hegemony has intensified, the global governance system is undergoing profound adjustments and the cause of human peace and development is facing severe challenges,” China’s state Xinhua news service reported, quoting Wang.
The world “is facing severe challenges, and some countries are attempting to form ‘small circles’ to contain Russia and China,” Lavrov reportedly added, even as Wang called for “international morality” and “world multi-polarisation”.
Lavrov warned of “some very, very dangerous games going on” in East Asian geopolitical hotspots that included Taiwan, the disputed South China Sea and the nuclear-armed Korean peninsula, according to an account of the meeting released by Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti.
