Hong Kong – China counterattacked on Monday against the United States’ allegations that it could providing non-lethal military assistance to Russia in its battle ukraineasking Washington to stay out of its ties with the Kremlin.
“The US is not qualified to dictate orders to China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing. We will never accept US criticism, even coercion and pressure on China-Russia relations.
Wang said that China’s position on Ukraine “can be cast as promoting peace talks.”
“China will firmly stand by the side of dialogue and peace and play a constructive role in easing the situation,” he said.
The US believes China may provide non-lethal military aid to Russia for use in Ukraine, and may also consider sending lethal aid, four US officials familiar with the matter said. told NBC News in an exclusive report on Saturday. He did not detail any underlying intelligence that might have motivated the allegation.
Beijing’s response came in the form of President Joe Biden surprise visit to ukraine on the Monday before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Earlier on Monday in Ankara, Turkey, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said that Biden had told the Chinese President Xi Jinping before “there will be real consequences in our own relations if China provides lethal assistance to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine or systematically aids in the evasion of sanctions.”
Blinken declined to specify what those results might be.
“But I think China understands what is the risk in going ahead with providing that kind of material support to Russia,” he said, adding that it could also affect China’s relations with other countries. .
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a lengthy joint statement announcing “No Limit” Partnership between their two countries. China has refrained from condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, urging peace talks, expressing concern about the humanitarian situation and taking precautions to avoid violating international sanctions.
Blinken said China is “trying to have it both ways.”
“Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine,” he said in an interview on NBC News.meet the Press, “But personally, as I said, we have already seen over these past months the provision of non-lethal aid that goes directly to aid and boost Russia’s war effort.”
While US officials do not believe China is currently providing lethal aid to Russia, Blinken said, “there are different types of lethal aid that they are at least considering providing, which include weapons.”
Blinken said they had discussed the issue China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, at their meeting on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Tension has already escalated between the two countries this month a chinese surveillance balloon which was dropped by the US military, the search for which inspired Blinken Postpone a planned trip to Beijing,
At the Munich conference, Wang said China would issue a document clarifying its position on the political settlement of the Ukraine dispute in the coming days. Wang, who was at the conference as part of a wider Europe trip, is expected to arrive in Moscow as early as Monday for talks on Ukraine and other issues, which could be a precursor to Xi’s trip to Moscow.
Also in Munich, Wang met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, telling him that China stood on the side of peace and dialogue, according to a readout released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
Wang said, “We do not want to see the Ukraine crisis prolonged and extended, and we are willing to work with the international community to prevent further deterioration of the situation and strive for peace.”