US says China in ‘difficult position’ to give Russia lethal aid due to Ukraine war

Observation shared before Joe Biden’s meeting with German leader Olaf Scholz amid concerns Beijing may provide weapons to Moscow
Every step taken towards Russia ‘makes it harder for China with Europe and other countries’, says White House spokeswoman

US-China relations

Bochen Hanin Washington

Published: 7:50am, 4 Mar 2023

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Russia’s war in Ukraine has put China in a “difficult position” to provide lethal aid, the White House said on Friday.

“We haven’t yet seen China do anything yet, as it relates to lethal weapons. And we believe that Russia’s war in Ukraine has put China in a difficult position to actually move forward in that direction,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

“Every step China takes towards Russia makes it harder for China with Europe and other countries around the world,” she added.

Jean-Pierre’s comments came ahead of a meeting on Friday between US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that focused primarily on the war in Ukraine.

The post-meeting readout did not contain any mention of China.

The leaders “discussed ongoing efforts to provide security, humanitarian, economic, and political assistance to Ukraine and the importance of maintaining global solidarity with the people of Ukraine”, it read.

The bilateral meeting took place amid growing concerns that Beijing may provide weapons to Moscow more than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Hours earlier, the US announced a new US$400 million military aid package for Kyiv – its thirty-third iteration of such support for the former Soviet republic since August 2021.

Speaking before journalists ahead of their private one-hour meeting, Biden thanked Scholz for “historic changes at home”, saying Germany had provided critical military and “profound” moral support to Ukraine while tackling domestic challenges like diversifying away from Russian energy sources.

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“I know that’s not been easy,” the president said.

The two reiterated their commitment to imposing costs on Russia for its aggression for as long as necessary, according to the readout.

“It’s very important that we give the message that we will continue to [help Ukraine] as long as it takes”, Scholz said, adding that relations between Germany and the US were “in a very good shape”.

The visit transpired less than two weeks after Biden returned from a surprise visit to Kyiv on February 20 during which he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Friday marked Scholz’s first trip to the US since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His last one happened weeks before Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24 last year.

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Biden and Scholz have met multiple times over the past year, including on the margins of the G7 summit in Germany last summer and in Bali during the G20 summit in November.

China was not a driving focus for Friday’s meeting, a senior Biden administration official said beforehand.

The overarching purpose of the meeting was for the two leaders to “get down into the weeds” focusing on Ukraine, as well as to “touch on a broader set of foreign policy challenges”, the official said.

Concern that China might provide arms or other materiel for use against Ukraine was one of the main messages US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered to Beijing’s top-ranking diplomat, Wang Yi, at the Munich Security Conference in February.

The US is closely tracking the situation and has reportedly been communicating with its allies about the possibility of imposing sanctions on China were Beijing to send military support to Russia.

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Scholz also met Zelensky in February. On Thursday, Scholz told the German parliament that he strongly opposed any Chinese support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and called on Beijing to push Moscow to withdraw.

Berlin said there had not yet been any sign of lethal aid from China to Russia.

During Scholz’s controversial visit to Beijing last November, the two sides jointly condemned threats to use atomic weapons in Ukraine. Before the trip, Scholz said the European Union had become too economically dependent on China, but insisted that Germany should not decouple from the country or heed “calls by some” to isolate it.

Scholz on Friday was not accompanied by a press delegation, and after the leaders met, neither side took media questions.