Unfulfilled promises did not scare them. Why did China offer cooperation to Ukraine again?

<Кабінет Міністрів повідомив про те, що Україна і Китай підписали міжурядову угоду щодо співробітництва в галузі будівництва інфраструктури та реалізації спільних проєктів. 30 червня угоду затвердили міністр інфраструктури України Олександр Кубраков і міністр комерції КНР Ван Веньтао. Що це дає нашій державі, яким був попередній досвід співпраці та чи справді буде запроваджено безвіз із Піднебесною в ефірі Українського радіо коментує директор консалтингової компанії "Вільям Інвест Експерт" Віктор Медвідь.

What the agreement provides for

It prioritizes infrastructure development. This is a memorandum of intent to cooperate.

It should be noted that we have had experience working with China. It was back in the days of Yanukovych. Back then, there was a big agreement where the State Food and Grain Corporation was supposed to supply food raw materials, including grains, and a number of other infrastructure projects were specified. However, the agreement was not implemented by Ukraine, and it did not fulfill its supply obligations. And recently, we had another agreement that was not at the state level, with Motor Sich. The issue is currently unresolved and will most likely be resolved in international arbitration courts. Therefore, against the backdrop of all these problems, this memorandum without resolving the previous issues does not look very serious.

Any agreement can be renewed. In this case, an inventory of mutual rights and obligations is made, and disputed issues are resolved; it would be nice if the situations regarding Motor Sich and the State Food and Grain Corporation were resolved, because these are state issues that are the responsibility of all citizens of our country, in fact, all taxpayers. We did not announce all of this, we just announced our intention to launch new projects. We understand that when it comes to real matters, before Chinese investors plan to invest, they must receive answers to previous questions and solve all problems.

China's strategy is economic expansion. It has made good progress in Africa. Of course, it is interested in expanding its own infrastructure, particularly in Ukraine. Some countries protect their own economies, such as the United States of America. It is not so easy to buy a building there, let alone expand infrastructure. Of course, China wants to cooperate with us, but it is scared off by the failure to fulfill its obligations and economic and legal issues.

Its domestic market has run out of growth opportunities, and the United States and Europe are closing their markets to it. However, in order to ensure a strong pace of development, it must move intensively and enter other countries. Therefore, this cooperation is not Ukraine's achievement, but China's economic realization.

However, when it comes to implementing specific issues of the memorandum, two situations can stand in the way: corrupt "desires" of local or central authorities or legal schemes to prevent the implementation of certain projects.

On the visa-free regime with China

This is a matter of national security. It should be carefully considered before opening borders with a country that has a powerful migration force. Therefore, I cannot assess this news positively or negatively. I would like to see the justifications, but no one has provided them to us. I doubt that Ukrainians will immediately go there in large crowds, but I don't doubt that thousands of Chinese will come to us.

There are prospects in our relationship. However, it all depends on the actions of the authorities to understand whether this is a long-term relationship or not. But we will not be able to move away from China because it is one of the most powerful countries in the world.

The governments of the two countries are already working on a visa-free regime agreement. Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong said this at a press conference in Kyiv in June.