Here’s what Chinese state media is saying ahead of Xi’s call with

BEIJING — While Chinese state media have tacked away from primarily pro-Russian coverage of the war in Ukraine, one of the consistent messages remains: Blame the U.S.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden are scheduled to speak Friday evening Beijing time about bilateral relations and “issues of common concern,” Chinese state media announced late Thursday.

The call would mark the first official contact between the U.S. and Chinese presidents since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Much of Chinese state media coverage since has focused on negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, without describing the conflict as an invasion or war. China’s foreign ministry has refused to call Russia’s attack on Ukraine an invasion, while blaming the U.S. for “fueling” the tensions.

That criticism has persisted.

People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, put a headline about the upcoming Xi-Biden call in a prominent, bolded spot on the right side of its website’s front page on Friday.

Several lines below it was a piece from the editorial board: “Sticking to ‘double standards’ will only bankrupt U.S. credibility,” the headline said, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese text.

In a nightly news show Thursday, China’s state television broadcaster noted the U.S. plans to send $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, and included clips of Putin blaming Western nations for global inflation.

The show closed by citing unnamed analysts warning that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates in a period of high inflation and uncertainty only adds to the risk of global debt default.

As is the case with most Chinese state media, the half-hour news broadcast focused mostly on domestic affairs, including China’s own ability to control the recent Covid-19 outbreak.

State media announcements on the Xi-Biden call did not specifically mention Ukraine, while the White House announcement included it as a planned topic of discussion.

Readouts of contact between high-level U.S. and Chinese officials have tended to separate U.S.-China relations from the two countries’ discussion of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized last week how China’s relationship with Russia was as solid as when Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met and issued a joint statement in early February.

Beijing has tried to portray itself as maintaining a relationship with Russia while working with European countries and other nations to broker peace, especially in the face of increased sanctions on Russia by the U.S., EU and other countries.

“Beijing’s support for Moscow is mostly rhetorical,” consulting firm Teneo said in a report released March 10.

On Friday, Gabriel Wildau, senior vice president at Teneo, noted a change in that rhetoric. “In…