Do not let China win Ukraine’s reconstruction

Excerpt Ukraine’s reconstruction will be the largest rebuilding effort in Europe since World War II. But as of now, the United States has no strategy to lead it — while China is positioning itself to control Ukraine’s future economic foundation. Though the war seems far from over, whenever it does end, as things stand, the United States will start the reconstruction race miles behind. Washington is helping Ukraine survive the war — but for what? If the U.S. sleeps through the rebuilding, Ukraine is likely to remain broken or be brought back to life in Beijing’s shadow In either case, the “no limits” partners — Russia and China — will have won regardless of the battlefield outcome. China already has a footprint in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. At the Karansky Quarry near Mariupol, a crushed-stone operation idle since 2008 is running again on Chinese machinery, supplied based on agreements struck in 2023. This quarry is just a preview. Antonia-Laura Pup is a Fulbright scholar from Romania and previously interned with the Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Angela Howard is a research analyst at CEFP and previously served as a project coordinator with the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation.