China asked Ukraine on 6 May to follow international law on two captured Chinese fighters, MFA spokesman Lin Jian said. Lin Jian did not say whether Beijing is taking action to bring the men home. Russia, on whose side they fought, has shown no interest in retrieving them, Ukrainian officials have said.
What Lin Jian said
At a Beijing briefing, a Ukrinform reporter asked Lin Jian whether China is acting to bring its citizens home. He said China "asks the Ukrainian side to follow relevant provisions of international law, protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals, and ensure their humane treatment."
"We’ve issued multiple security alerts to ask Chinese nationals to stay away from areas of armed conflict, avoid any form of involvement in armed conflict, and in particular avoid participation in any party’s military operations," said Lin Jian.
The two captured Chinese mercenaries, Zhang Renbo and Wang Guangjun, publicly asked Beijing to bring them home over a year ago.
How they got there
Ukrainian forces captured the two men in Donetsk Oblast in April 2025. Both said they signed up for the Russian army after seeing a recruitment ad on TikTok. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the time Ukrainian intelligence had counted at least 155 Chinese nationals in Russia's army.
Russia has used social media to recruit Chinese citizens since at least 2023.
Russia has only asked about its North Koreans
Bohdan Okhrimenko, who heads the Secretariat of Ukraine's POW Coordination Headquarters, said Russia has only asked about its North Koreans. Other foreign fighters in Ukrainian custody do not interest Moscow.
"Sometimes we have to persuade them to take back their own citizens," Okhrimenko said.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is holding both Chinese men in a pretrial detention center.
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