U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with several other NATO ministers, delivered a message to China’s Foreign Affairs Commission Councillor Wang Yi. In the past, although China has openly sided with Russia in its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine, the aid has been of a non-lethal variety.
But Blinken and other allies made it clear to his Chinese counterpart that any lethal aid sent to Russia would affect US-China relations.
ABC’s Martha Radditz asked Blinken what evidence he had that made him think China is ready to send lethal aid to the Russians.
Blinken responded, “Martha, what I can tell you is this. First of all, from day one, almost quite literally because President Biden spoke to President Xi a couple of weeks into the Russian aggression back last March, and said to him that it would be a deep concern to us if China provided lethal support to Russia or helped in the systematic evasion of sanction. And part of that reason for that conversation going back to last March was, just a few weeks before President Putin and President Xi had met and they talked about a partnership with no limits. And we were very concerned that no limits might including significant support to Russia and its aggression.”
The Secretary of State went further saying that they were watching China very closely. Up until now, they have been engaged in providing rhetorical, political, and diplomatic support to Russia.
Blinken said that they have information that is causing concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine.
He felt it was very necessary to tell Wang Yi that this was a serious problem.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Wang Yi paid a whole lot of attention to it. Yesterday, he was in Moscow meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
