China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi met US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Rome on Monday as the war in Ukraine threatened to become a new source of tension between the two countries. For seven hours, Yang and Sullivan discussed a full range of tensions now dividing Washington and Beijing, US officials said, but they focused extensively on Ukraine, with the US warning that China would face serious consequences if it backs Russia in the war. “What we have conveyed – and what was conveyed by our national security adviser in this meeting – is that, should they provide military or other assistance that of course violates sanctions or supports the war effort, that there will be significant consequences,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The comments were the latest sign that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine late last month has injected even more distrust into Washington’s already tense relationship with Beijing. They came amid reports that Moscow had asked Beijing for military and financial assistance in the war. Psaki declined to discuss the form punitive measures might take, but she indicated that they would be initiated by the US and carried out in coordination with allies. China risks isolation ‘if it doesn’t distance itself from Russia’ “It’s less about changing their mind [about the nature of their relationship with Russia] and more about making clear with them what the consequences would be should they take additional actions to support this invasion,” she said. A Chinese readout of the meeting said that Yang warned the US not to mischaracterize Beijing’s stance on the war, which has been hotly debated in Washington amid China’s refusal so far to condemn Russia’s invasion. “Yang Jiechi stressed that China firmly opposes any words or deeds that spread false information, distort or smear China’s position,” a state media report said. The report added that Yang, a Politburo member and the Communist Party’s foreign affairs chief, told Sullivan that “the situation in Ukraine has reached a point that the Chinese side does not want to see”. It was an intense seven-hour session reflecting the gravity of the moment Senior US administration official “China is committed to promoting peace talks, and the international community should jointly support the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, achieve substantive results as soon as possible, and promote the cooling of the situation as soon as possible,” it said. The meeting between Sullivan and Yang took place a day after Sullivan warned Beijing it would face severe “consequences” if it helped Russia evade sanctions . Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, denied US media reports that Moscow had asked Beijing for military assistance. “The US side has repeatedly disseminated disinformation about China on the Ukraine issue and they are very ill-intentioned,” he said on Monday in Beijing. A senior US administration official who briefed reporters after the meeting said that Yang and Sullivan had also discussed North Korea, tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the importance of maintaining open lines of communication. “It was an intense seven-hour session reflecting the gravity of the moment as well as our commitment to maintaining open lines of communication,” the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said that plans for the meeting began months ago, after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met virtually in November. European Union spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said no EU officials would meet Yang during the trip. She also said that Brussels had “no evidence” that Russia asked China for military support, saying: “We cannot confirm or deny any allegations that Russia asked for assistance from China. … But we are in close contact with the United States on all matters connected to the war in Ukraine, including the position of Russia.” In advance of the session between Sullivan and Yang, Pang Zhongying, an international relations professor at Ocean University of China, said: “This meeting will be the key for the US to determine whether China can still be neutralised or this ‘no-limit’ partnership between China and Russia formed a solidarity that is so strong that there is no need or it is impossible for the US to treat them separately. “If their judgment is the latter, then it will surely affect future China policies and especially their Indo-Pacific strategy. “Two things in the Ukraine discussion will help the US draw this conclusion: whether China will provide weapons to Russia, and whether it will provide an economic lifeline for Russia. “How China presents itself is of course unknown right now. But the big question is, whether it is too late for China to back down from its previous position.” Ukraine war: UN says 2.6 million have fled, largest exodus since WWII Wally Adeyemo, a US deputy treasury secretary, said on Monday that he had not seen evidence that China was breaking Western sanctions against Russia, adding that Beijing was limited in terms of what else it could offer. “China can’t give Russia what it doesn’t have,”Adeyemo said in a CNBC interview. “And what Russia needs most is it’s going to need things like semiconductors going forward, semiconductors that China doesn’t have and it can’t provide them.” He added: “Chinese financial institutions and the Chinese state has been very cautious about violating not only American sanctions but the sanctions put in place by other countries. We haven’t seen any evidence that China’s done anything to violate our sanctions.” China has refused to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine – abstaining on UN resolutions that have decried the invasion – but has also pledged to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis there. It has also shown support for Russia’s security concerns but has called for dialogue and de-escalation. Ren Xiao, a professor specialising in China-US relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, said he believed the two sides would try to limit the impact of Ukraine on their relationship, and Beijing would express its discontent over the US position on Taiwan. “China’s policies on Ukraine have been quite clear, and these are likely to continue. China will not join Western sanctions,” he said. Lu Xiang, a research fellow in US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think tank in Beijing, said that the session itself contained reasons for optimism. “As you can see from the statements released this time, it’s not saying China has ‘agreed to meet at the invitation of the US’, or vice versa, meaning China has a certain degree of proactiveness involved in wanting to communicate.” China calls for verification of Russian claims of US bioweapons help to Ukraine He said that at a previous meeting between Sullivan and Yang in Alaska , which was also attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, “there was still some confusion over who gets the lead and the final say in things between Sullivan and Blinken, but this time it is more clear that Yang and Sullivan are both the leaders’ top advisers”. Yang and Sullivan also met in the Swiss city of Zurich in October. Additional reporting by Owen Churchill and Robert Delaney