Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a press conference in Beijing, China, 7 March 2022.
Li Xin | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing wants to avoid the impact of US sanctions over Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“China is not a party to the crisis and does not want sanctions to affect China,” Wang said on Monday during a phone call with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albarez to discuss the crisis in Ukraine.
“China has the right to protect its legitimate rights and interests.”
His comments are seen as one of Beijing’s most outspoken statements about the unprecedented flurry of international sanctions against Russia’s corporate and financial system. These measures came in response to the Kremlin’s full-scale attack on Ukraine, which began on February 24.
The White House has warned China not to provide Russia with economic aid as the Kremlin ramps up pressure on Ukraine. The US says it fears that China, a key strategic ally of Moscow, may try to cushion the impact of measures aimed at destroying Russia’s economy if the war continues.
There are fears among market participants that Chinese companies could soon face financial sanctions following reports that Moscow has turned to Beijing for help in supporting its invasion of Ukraine.
China has denied these reports, and Russia has said it has not asked Beijing for military assistance.
After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Beijing refused to call it an invasion and said China would maintain normal trade with both countries. China has not joined the sanctions of the US, EU and other countries against Russia.
However, China said it was “deeply” concerned about the crisis in Ukraine.
“Tense” negotiations
US and Chinese officials met on Monday to discuss a range of bilateral issues, including Russia’s war with Ukraine. The talks, which took place in Rome, Italy, lasted 7 hours and were called “tense” by one senior administration official.
The United States warned of consequences for any country that supports Russia in the context of the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine.
“We are very closely monitoring the extent to which the PRC [People’s Republic of China] or any country in the world provides material, economic, financial, rhetorical support for this war of choice, which the president [Vladimir] Putin is waging war against the government of Ukraine, against the state of Ukraine, and against the people of Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing on Monday.
“We have made clear to Beijing, both privately and publicly, that any such support will have consequences,” Price said.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday that the Kremlin is counting on China to help it counter the fallout from the global economic measures imposed against Moscow, Reuters reported.
In a conversation with Spain’s Albarez, China’s Wang reaffirmed Beijing’s longstanding stance on opposing unilateral sanctions outside the United Nations.
“China has always opposed the use of sanctions to solve problems, and even more so against unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law, which undermine international rules and damage the livelihoods of people in all countries,” Wang said.
— Amanda Macias and Veygen Tan of CNBC contributed to this report.