China going own way on Ukraine issue: scholar

BERLIN, March 23 (Xinhua) -- While dealing with the Ukraine crisis, China will neither follow the West nor Russia, said Zheng Yongnian, a scholar with the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), in a recent interview with German weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

China is going its own way, said Zheng, director of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies of the university. He noted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is damaging the entire global economy and thus also China, and China definitely wants the conflict to end as soon as possible.

China needs a stable world order for its further modernization and is genuinely concerned about the conflict, but understands Russia's security concerns, Zheng said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a product of the Cold War, was created as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, Zheng said, adding that the U.S.-led military alliance continues to exist after the Soviet Union's disintegration, and that is the reason why Russia regards NATO's eastward expansion as a threat.