Ukraine war: China’s envoy to US says Beijing is sending humanitarian aid, not weapons
- Ambassador Qin Gang says China has ‘normal economic, financial [and] energy cooperation with Russia’
- Envoy also says calls for condemnation of Russia are ‘naive’
China’s top envoy to the US denied that Beijing was sending military equipment to Russia to support its neighbour’s invasion of Ukraine, but declined to explicitly rule out such a move and defended the country’s unaltered economic relationship with Moscow.
Characterising reports that Beijing is inclined to provide military assistance to Russia as “disinformation”, Ambassador Qin Gang said in an interview with CBS on Sunday that Beijing was sending humanitarian aid to help those affected by the conflict that has entered a fourth week.
“What China is doing is sending food, medicine, sleeping bags and baby formula, not weapons and ammunition to any party, and we are against the war,” Qin said.
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Pressed to declare whether Beijing would support Russia’s ability, financially, to continue its invasion of Ukraine, Qin explained that “China has normal trade, economic, financial [and] energy cooperation with Russia”.