• Amb. Shyam Saran, Former Foreign Secretary
• Professor Da Wei, Tsinghua University
• Professor Michael Klare, Five Colleges Programme in Peace & World Security Studies
• Prof. Anuradha M. Chenoy, former Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Dr. Hemant Adlakha, Jawaharlal Nehru University,

The pounding of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at 4 a.m. on 24 February by the Russian missiles has been called "the end of the post-Cold War" world order by one influential Chinese financial daily. Following the Russian military assault on Ukraine, China's "ambiguous" stance on the ongoing military action has been seriously questioned both internally and in the global press. On the one hand, notwithstanding President Xi asking President Putin to resolve the crisis through negotiations, China continues to avoid calling the Russian military action as "invasion." On the other hand, the ambiguity in the Chinese position on the war in Ukraine is manifested in the contradictory headlines in the different state-controlled media. As one pro-market, pro-liberal Chinese financial newspaper has already issued an edit headlined "Russian Assault on Ukraine."

Not to be ignored is China's annual "two sessions" this March where the PRC government is expected to set the GDP growth target for 2022 at just above 5%. With the war in Ukraine waging on, critics and investors are already hinting at Beijing's nervousness as to where Chinese markets are headed in the coming days. The proposed panel of experts will attempt to explain and put in perspective several questions facing China in the face of ongoing storming of Ukrainian people by the Russian troops: did China act too quickly in siding with Russia on the "war game" in Ukraine? Is Beijing facing a diplomatic dilemma in the Ukraine crisis? Is China trapped by President Putin in this Russian-Chinese "marriage of convenience"? What are the domestic implications of the so-called sudden change of the Russia-Ukraine "chess game" into "war game" for China? Why are some Chinese strategic affairs analysts calling it a failure of China in the "battle of world opinion" on Ukraine?