WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Thursday that the United States would punish China if President Xi Jinping chooses to provide military aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine, where Russian forces have killed thousands of civilians.
“We are concerned that they are considering helping Russia directly with military equipment for use in Ukraine,” said Mr. Shine at a press conference in Washington. “President Biden will speak with President Xi tomorrow and make it clear that China will bear responsibility for all actions it takes to support Russian aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose charges.”
Mr Blinken is the top US official to have explicitly warned China against giving military aid to Russia. He said that because of its ties to Russia, China had a special responsibility to try to convince President Vladimir V. Putin to end his war.
But “it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression, while trying to portray itself as a neutral arbiter,” Mr Blinken said.
The White House announced Thursday that Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi would meet Friday as part of “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication.” The two presidents are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and competition between the United States and China, among other things, the White House said.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi last spoke in a video call on Nov. 15. The talk, scheduled for Friday, was hosted by Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, and Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo, when the two met in Rome Monday, Jen Psaki said. the White House press secretary. During a seven-hour meeting, Mr Sullivan warned Mr Wang that China should not give aid to Russia.
“This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands,” Ms Psaki said at a news conference on Thursday. She added that there had been “no condemnation by China of what Russia is doing”, which “of course goes against everything China stands for, including the basic principles of the UN Charter, including the basic principles of respect for the sovereignty of the nations.”
“So the fact that China has not condemned what Russia is doing speaks volumes in itself,” Ms Psaki continued. “And it also speaks volumes, not just in Russia and Ukraine, but around the world.”
Mr Xi and Mr Putin met in Beijing on February 4, two weeks before the invasion, and issued a 5,000-word statement saying their two countries had a partnership without borders.
US officials told DailyExpertNews on Sunday that Russia had asked China for military equipment and support after Mr Putin began his large-scale invasion on Feb. 24. An official said Russia had also asked for economic aid in response to severe sanctions imposed on the country by the United States and its European and Asian allies.
The foreign ministry sent telegrams to allies saying that China had given positive signals on military aid, a European official said Monday. The official added that Russia had requested five types of equipment: surface-to-air missiles, drones, armored vehicles, logistics vehicles and intelligence-related equipment.
A senior Pentagon official gave different details this week, saying Russia’s request included drones, secure radios and even ready-to-eat rations for troops, commonly known as MREs. The official said the United States had received indications before the meeting in Rome that China was inclined to grant Russia’s request.
The officials spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity due to its sensitivity to diplomatic, military and intelligence issues.
Pentagon officials have found that the Russian military has problems with the performance of air-to-surface and ground-to-ground missiles in the war. The Russian ground offensive has stalled in parts of Ukraine, with columns of tanks and other armored vehicles on the road for days. US officials have given a conservative estimate that more than 7,000 Russian troops have been killed, more than the number of US troops killed in more than 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
War Between Russia and Ukraine: Important Things to Know
The Russian military has adopted a tactic it used in wars in Chechnya and Syria: firing barrages of rockets, rockets and grenades at cities to kill civilians, including many women and children, in an attempt to deflect a surrender. force.
Even with the massacre, Chinese officials have continued to support Russia. They have blamed the United States for the war and repeated Mr Putin’s criticism of NATO. Chinese diplomats and state media organizations have bolstered Kremlin propaganda and a conspiracy theory about Pentagon-funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Xue Hanqin, the Chinese judge at the International Court of Justice, sided with the Russian judge in denying a ruling that Russia must immediately end the war in Ukraine. The vote was 13 to 2.
Beginning in November, US officials shared information about Russia’s troop building up around Ukraine with Chinese officials and asked them to try to persuade Mr Putin not to invade, but were turned down, US officials said. And a Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials had asked senior Russian officials to invade Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February, US and European officials have said.
Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the United States, wrote in an op-ed essay published Tuesday by The Washington Post that “claims China knew about, agreed to or tacitly supported this war are pure misinformation.”
Evan S. Medeiros, who served as senior Asia director on the National Security Council at Obama’s White House, wrote in an op-ed essay published Thursday by The Financial Times that Europe, China’s largest trading partner, must put pressure on Beijing to stop supporting Moscow in the war.
“The strategic alignment with Russia before the invasion, combined with Russia’s ability since the first missile strike, is reminiscent of the Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s,” he wrote, referring to a period when Mao and Stalin coordinated on political and foreign policy. †
Eric Schmitt reporting contributed.
