WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden sends his National Security Adviser on Monday to talk with a senior Chinese official in Rome as concerns grow that China is ramping up Russian disinformation in the war in Ukraine and could help Russia avoid economic sanctions.
Negotiations between National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s senior foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi will focus on “efforts to manage competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” Horne said. for the White House National Security Council.
The White House has accused Beijing of spreading Russia’s false claims that Ukraine has set up chemical and biological weapons labs with US support. US officials said China was trying to cover up a potential Russian military attack on Ukrainians with biological or chemical weapons.
Sullivan said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that when Russia starts accusing other countries of preparing for biological or chemical attacks, “it’s a good sign that they may be on the cusp of doing it themselves.”
He also said that China and other countries should not try to help Russia get around the sanctions, and the US made it clear that other countries should not bail out the Russian economy. “We will make sure that neither China nor anyone else can compensate Russia for these losses,” Sullivan said.
Violent accusations of Russian disinformation and Chinese complicity came after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, without any evidence, that the US was funding Ukraine’s chemical and biological weapons labs.
Russia’s statement was echoed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who said there were 26 biological laboratories and related facilities “over which the US Department of Defense has absolute control.” The United Nations said it had not received any information to substantiate such allegations.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the claims “absurd” last week.
“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has apparently supported this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia possibly using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or organizing a false flag operation using them,” Psaki wrote on Twitter. Wednesday evening. “It’s a clear pattern.”
Sullivan, who appeared on several Sunday news shows before the trip, told CBS’s Facing the Nation that Russian rhetoric about chemical and biological weapons is an indicator that the Russians are actually preparing to do it and will try to prick someone else to blame. and no one should fall for it.”
The international community has for years believed that Russia used chemical weapons to assassinate Putin’s detractors such as Alexei Navalny and former spy Sergei Skripal. Russia also supports the Assad government in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its own people in a decade-long civil war.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, CIA Director William Burns also expressed serious concern that Russia could lay the groundwork for a chemical or biological attack of its own, in which it would then accuse the US or Ukraine of a false flag operation.
“This is something that, as you all well know, is part of Russia’s strategy,” he said. “They used these weapons against their own citizens, they at least encouraged their use in Syria and elsewhere, so we take this very seriously.”
China was one of the few countries that did not criticize Russia for invading Ukraine. Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, just weeks before Russia launched its February 24 invasion.
During Putin’s visit to China last month, the two leaders issued a 5,000-word statement announcing the “boundless” friendship between the two countries.
The Chinese abstained from a UN vote condemning Russia and criticized economic sanctions against Moscow. He expressed support for peace talks and offered his services as a mediator despite questions about his neutrality and meager experience in mediating international conflicts.
Chinese officials also said that Washington should not complain about Russia’s actions because the US invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The US claimed to have evidence that Saddam Hussein stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, though nothing has ever been found.
For Russia, China could be a critical economic partner in easing tough sanctions imposed by the US, the UK, the 27 countries of the European Union and others, though there are questions about how far Beijing will go to alienate the alliance and endanger its own economy. risky.
The Biden administration wants to convince China that any attempt to ease sanctions on Russia could have repercussions for its relations with the US and Western allies.
On CNN’s State of the Union program, Sullivan said on Sunday that the administration believes China knew that Putin was “planning something” prior to the invasion of Ukraine. But Sullivan said the Chinese government “may not have understood all this, because it’s entirely possible that Putin lied to them just as he lied to the Europeans and others.”
Sullivan and Yang last met for face-to-face talks in Switzerland, where Sullivan expressed the Biden administration’s concerns about China’s military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities, and efforts to crack down on pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong.
The meeting set the stage for a three-hour virtual meeting in November between Biden and Xi.
Sullivan is also scheduled to meet with Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, while in Rome.