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US reiterates claim that China is considering sending Russia military help for Ukraine war
- No sign Moscow-targeted sanctions being evaded, but strong indications recently that Beijing is pondering option, says America’s top diplomat
- China’s post-Covid charm offensive abroad would be undercut by providing ‘lethal support’ to Russia, Antony Blinken adds
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Robert Delaneyin Washington
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday reiterated his contention that Beijing is considering providing military support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, a claim the Chinese government has refuted.
While the American intelligence community has not detected “systematic” evasion by China of sanctions against Russia, “we also have picked up information over the last couple of months that strongly indicates that China is now considering doing that”, Blinken said in an online discussion with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Concern that China might provide arms or other materiel for use against Ukraine was one of the main messages Blinken delivered to Beijing’s top-ranking diplomat Wang Yi at last week’s Munich Security Conference in Germany.
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“I … directly told [Wang] this concern, what we were seeing, and reminded him of the many conversations between President [Joe] Biden and President Xi [Jinping], and reminded him that this would be a serious problem in the relationship,” America’s top envoy recalled.
“I’m hopeful but in a very clear-minded way that China will get that message because it’s not only coming from us,” Blinken added. “It’s coming from many other countries who do not want to see China aiding and abetting in a material way Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
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