Joe Biden says he didn’t threaten China’s Xi Jinping in a recent call but made clear the “consequences” of aid to Moscow.
US President Joe Biden has reiterated his warning to China to come to the aid of Russia in Ukraine, saying that such aid made it clear in a phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping that such aid would have “consequences”. would entail.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a NATO summit Thursday in Brussels, the United States President said Xi understands that China’s economic interests lie with the West, not Russia.
“I didn’t make any threats, but I did point out the number of American and foreign companies that left Russia as a result of them [Russia’s] barbaric behavior,” Biden said of his conversation with the Chinese leader.
Biden added that he had told Xi that if China went ahead with aid to Russia, he would “expose himself to significant risk” in his efforts to strengthen economic ties with the US and Europe.
Washington has been warning Beijing against helping Moscow for weeks amid reports that Russia has requested military aid from China.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, China has publicly maintained a neutral stance, supporting talks to end the deadly conflict while urging “maximum restraint” and de-escalation.
US officials have declined to give their assessment of whether they believe China has decided to assist Russia in its war effort.
China has abstained on United Nations votes criticizing Russia over the war, including a UN General Assembly resolution passed overwhelmingly on Thursday.
On Wednesday, China supported a Russian draft resolution on humanitarian aid access to Ukraine, which was rejected by Western nations for not blaming the crisis. The proposal failed, with only Beijing and Moscow voting in favor while the other 13 Security Council members abstained.
“Regarding the Ukraine issue, China has expressed its view that the international community should focus on two things, namely peace talks and avoiding a major humanitarian crisis,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week.
Washington and its allies have imposed sanctions on the Russian economy, as well as on President Vladimir Putin and elites in his inner circle. On Thursday, Biden called for the creation of a Western-led body to prosecute any circumvention of these sanctions.
“We also talked today about having to set up a system – set up NATO and set up the EU – where we have an organization that looks at who has violated any of these sanctions and where, when and how they violate them,” Biden told reporters.
Experts say imposing sanctions on China should it support Russia in the war in Ukraine would not be as easy as the US-led campaign to punish Moscow.
“It’s much more difficult simply because of the much larger economic relationship that the US has with China,” Christopher Heurlin, associate professor of government and Asian studies at Bowdoin College, told Al Jazeera earlier this month.
“Obviously there are a lot more companies doing business with China in the US. That would make trying to link our economic ties with foreign policy much more costly,” Heurlin said.
As the invasion entered its second month on Thursday, the war in Ukraine has pushed more than 3.6 million people to flee the country while Russian forces continue to besiege and bombard Ukrainian cities.
At his press conference on Thursday, Biden warned Putin about the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. “We will react if he uses it. The type of response would depend on the type of usage,” Biden said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Russia would only use nuclear weapons if its existence was threatened.
“We have a concept of internal security, and that is public. You can read all the reasons for using nuclear weapons,” Peskov said Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who asked if he was “convinced or confident” that Putin would not use the nuclear option in the Ukrainian context.
Peskow continues: “So if it is an existential threat to our country, then it can be used according to our concept.”