It is not yet clear whether China intends to provide such assistance to Russia, US officials familiar with the intelligence told CNN. But during a tense seven-hour meeting in Rome, President Joe Biden’s top aide warned his Chinese counterpart of the “potential repercussions” for China if Russian support were given, a senior administration official said.
The series of events highlighted the growing concern of US officials about a promising partnership between Moscow and Beijing as Biden works to isolate and punish Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. While officials say the Chinese president was dismayed by what happened after Russia’s invasion, there is little to indicate that China is ready to end its support entirely.
This leaves open a troubling possibility for US officials — that China could help prolong a bloody conflict that has increasingly killed civilians, as well as solidify an authoritarian alliance in direct competition with the United States.
In a diplomatic cable, the US conveyed to its allies in Europe and Asia that China had expressed its willingness to help Russia, which had requested military support. The telegram did not unambiguously indicate that assistance had been provided. One official also said the US had warned in a cable that China would likely deny its willingness to help.
Among the aid requested by Russia were pre-packaged, non-perishable military food kits, known in the US as “ready-to-eat” or MREs, according to two people familiar with the matter, according to two people familiar with the matter. The request highlights major logistical challenges that military analysts and officials say are hindering Russia’s advance in Ukraine and raises questions about the fundamental readiness of the Russian military.
Forward-based units typically outpaced their supply convoys, and according to open source reports, Russian troops broke into grocery stores looking for food as the invasion progressed. One source suggested that food could be a request that China is willing to meet because it doesn’t go as far as lethal aid that the West would find deeply provocative.
According to one of the sources, there is no consensus among the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party on how to respond to Russia’s request for help. The two officials said China’s desire to avoid the economic fallout could limit its desire to help Russia. Officials separately told CNN that Chinese President Xi Jinping is concerned about how the war in Ukraine has revitalized the NATO alliance.
“Some are really concerned that their involvement could damage the economic relationship with the West that China relies on,” one of the sources said.
Officials are also monitoring whether China is providing some economic and diplomatic assistance to Russia in other forms, such as an abstention vote at the United Nations.
In Rome, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and a U.S. delegation, who met with senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi, expressed their concerns “bluntly and very clearly” about China’s support for post-invasion Russia and the consequences of any such support. “for” China’s relationship with the United States and partners around the world, said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
“This includes allies and partners in Europe and the Indo-Pacific,” Price said at a State Department briefing on Monday.
Concern about China’s potential involvement in the war has risen as the bombardment of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, has intensified, and Russia’s military campaign has moved west. However, signs remained that Russian forces were being thwarted by Ukrainian fighters, highlighting Russia’s need for outside assistance.
Ukrainian forces “effectively overwhelmed Russian logistics and support capabilities” during the war, a senior U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on Monday. And the US does not believe that Russian missile strikes on a Ukrainian military training center in western Ukraine will affect US efforts to supply weapons to that country’s armed forces.
Biden, who is working to secure international support for Ukraine, may soon travel to Europe for further consultations with allies there, people familiar with the plans said, though neither trip had been completed as of Monday. His administration is also considering accelerating the resettlement of U.S.-linked Ukrainian refugees. The U.S. president may soon face increased pressure to help displaced Ukrainians – U.S. President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
US Watches How China Reacts to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Ahead of the meeting, US officials said they expect Yang to present China as a neutral partner willing to help facilitate talks between the two sides aimed at ending hostilities. China has stepped up its diplomatic efforts in recent days, including in a phone call last week between Xi and the leaders of France and Germany that was meant to show a willingness to play a more active role in the crisis.
The US has been somewhat skeptical of these efforts, given China’s recent rapprochement with Russia. And over the weekend, US officials said they had information that Russia had requested military support from China, including drones, as its invasion progressed more slowly than the Kremlin expected. Both the Chinese and Russian governments publicly denied that the request had been made.
Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that China backing Russia was a “worry”.
“We are also closely monitoring the extent to which China actually provides any kind of support, material or economic, to Russia. This is our concern. And we have told Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for losses from economic sanctions,” Sullivan said.
US officials say they believe Xi was concerned about the Russian invasion and the performance of the Russian military, which has experienced logistical and strategic setbacks since the invasion began more than two weeks ago. Watching from Beijing, Xi was caught off guard by the failure of his own intelligence to predict what happened, officials said, even though the United States had been warning of an invasion for weeks.
“Perhaps they did not understand all this,” Sullivan told CNN on Sunday, “because it is quite possible that Putin lied to them, just as he lied to the Europeans and others.”
The largely global opposition to Russia’s actions has made China think about the damage it could do to its reputation if it stays with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And an economic break with Europe or the US could hurt the Chinese economy, which is already growing at a slower rate than it has been in 30 years.
For all these reasons, American officials believe that now is the moment when engagement with China is imperative, as it determines how to deal with Russian aggression. US and Chinese officials have been in regular contact over the past few weeks, including in the run-up to the Russian invasion.
Price said the US is “very closely monitoring the extent to which the PRC” – another name for China – “or any other country, for that matter, provides any form of support, be it material support, be it economic support, be it Russian financial support.
“Any such support from anywhere in the world will be a big problem for us,” he said.
He declined to specifically comment on reports of the diplomatic cable.
“We have made it very clear to Beijing that we will not stand idle… We will not allow every country to compensate Russia for its losses,” he added.
Price has described China’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as somewhat “ambivalent”.
“I read a statement the other day by an official representative of the People’s Republic of China, in which he called the situation difficult. There is nothing complicated about this. This is undisguised aggression,” he said.
Russian invasion of Ukraine strained relations with China
Sullivan’s meeting Monday in Rome was originally conceived as a follow-up to US President Joe Biden and Xi’s nearly three-hour virtual summit in November, which came at the same time US officials began warning of a massive Russian troop buildup along Ukraine’s borders. During the call, Xi warned Biden that dividing the world into competing blocs would “inevitably lead to disaster,” according to Chinese data.
However, the Russian invasion has done more to unite the world in rival alliances than anything Biden has done to strengthen relations with the US. US intelligence found that Xi was also unprepared for such an outcome, believing instead that European economic interests would prevent countries there from imposing tough sanctions.
The dynamic has complicated a relationship that Xi and Putin declared “limitless” in a lengthy document in February when Putin visited Beijing for talks and attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. The US decision to stage a diplomatic boycott of the Games infuriated Xi, officials said, making Putin’s presence at the stadium all the more important.
The evolution of China’s response to the Russian invasion – from denying it will happen, to avoiding public condemnation to presenting itself as a possible mediator – is closely watched by the White House, where the potential of a Moscow-Beijing alliance is being scrutinized. heightened concern. CIA director Bill Burns said last week that the partnership was based on “a lot of very cold-blooded reasons.”
The new “axis”, which is being formed as a counterweight to US efforts to strengthen regional security, was being developed even before the war in Ukraine, including in the economic, political and military spheres. But the US does not consider the partnership fully developed, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes told lawmakers last week.
“We see that this is not yet the moment when we, for example, are with allies,” Haynes said. “They have not reached this level of cooperation, and we expect that in the next five years they are unlikely … to become the same allies as we are with our other NATO members in this context.”
This story has been supplemented by an additional report.