Beijing will pay if it helps Russia evade sanctions, US State Department official warns
- ‘China, if it were to seek to evade the sanctions, or somehow dividing the sanctions, they would be vulnerable,’ says Derek Chollet
- The nations that have joined in sanctioning Russia represent a combined 50 per cent of the global economy; China accounts for around 15 per cent
If China tries to help Russia evade sanctions in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, it will face countermeasures, a senior US State Department official said on Thursday, without providing details.
State Department counsellor Derek Chollet said the allied nations that have joined in sanctioning Russia represent a combined 50 per cent of the global economy; China accounts for around 15 per cent.
“China, if it were to seek to evade the sanctions, or somehow dividing the sanctions, they would be vulnerable,” he said. “Any country that tries to evade these sanctions will also face the consequences of its actions. I don’t want to speculate with that would be.”
China has tried to walk a fine line as the US and its allies have unveiled a sweeping array of punitive financial and economic measures, stating that it neither supports, nor will it take part in imposing sanctions.
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“China firmly opposes all illegal unilateral sanctions, and believes that sanctions are never fundamentally effective means to solve problems,” Liu Pengyu, spokesman in the Chinese embassy in Washington, said on Thursday.