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US intelligence suggests China is considering supplying arms and ammunition to Russia, whose involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine would be a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken said the United States has long been concerned that China will supply weapons to Russia.
He pointed to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of “unlimited” partnership when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops to Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since then, relations between the two countries have only grown stronger.
“We have been watching this very, very closely. And, for the most part, China has been involved in providing rhetorical, political, diplomatic support to Russia, but we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support. Russia in the war against Ukraine ,” Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday.
The day before, he attended a meeting at a security conference in Munich with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official.
“It was important for me to make it clear to Wang Yi that this was going to be a serious matter,” Blinken said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned China not to give aid to Russia to help fight against Ukraine. “Based on the information we have, they are considering providing support that could cause and will cause serious problems in our relationship,” Blinken said in an interview with CBS at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
‘Disaster’ for US-China relations: senator
With Putin determined to show some progress on the battlefield as the war approaches the one-year mark, Russian forces have been on the offensive in Eastern Ukraine.
“Ukraine is holding on very strongly, Russia is suffering terrible losses in this effort,” Blinken said. He estimated that Russia has 97 percent of the ground forces in Ukraine.
Russia also wants to seize more territory before Ukraine receives the more advanced weapons recently promised by the US and its European allies.
“But what Secretary Blinken said is big news to me,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who represents South Carolina. Graham said the world should “clash China” if it supplies Russia with lethal weapons, and he advised China’s leaders to do nothing.
Graham said it would be “the most catastrophic thing that could happen to US-China relations…. That would change everything forever.”
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent weeks after the US shot down what it said was a Chinese spy balloon. China insists it is used mainly for meteorological research and cannot be carried out.
World leaders at the Munich Security Conference pledged to maintain production of military stockpiles to support Ukraine’s war against Russia. But there has been no significant promise of key Ukraine requests for heavier weapons like fighter jets.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, also expressed concern about any attempt by the Chinese to support Russia, saying “that would be a red line.”
Retired general Jack Keane, the former deputy chief of staff of the US army, said he agreed with the decision of the Biden administration to expose the possibility of China’s readiness to supply some weapons that could affect Russia. He said he could persuade China to stop.
“And I think coming out and exposing — and I’m going to go even further and tell you what we want to expose — China is going to push back after that public exposure,” Keane said.
Blinken and Graham are on ABC This weekThomas-Greenfield appeared on CNN State of the Union and Keane spoke on Fox News Sunday.
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