US Presidents Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the previous virtual summit on November 15, 2021. (AFP/MANDEL NGAN)
Setting the scene hours before an exchange between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, the United States said Thursday that China would subject itself to reprisals if it “supports Russian aggression” against Ukraine.
“We are concerned that they are planning to directly assist Russia with military equipment that will be used in Ukraine. President Biden will speak with President Xi tomorrow and let him know that China will be responsible for any actions aimed at supporting Russian aggression, and that we will not hesitate to bear the costs,” US Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken said Thursday.
“We see with concern that China is considering providing Russia with direct military assistance,” he added.
This is the clearest warning the United States has given China since the invasion of Ukraine began, and it came just hours before a meeting between the US and Chinese presidents scheduled for Friday at 9:00 am Washington time (1:00 am). 00:00 GMT).
The meeting, the fourth between the two leaders since Joe Biden became president, aims to “keep channels of communication open between the United States and the People’s Republic of China,” U.S. Executive Press Secretary Jen said in a press release. Psaki.
This is the constant concern of the American president, for whom the US and China are certainly destined to engage in ruthless competition, but with enough dialogue so that this confrontation does not become a source of chaos on the international level.
The two leaders will discuss this “competition” between Washington and Beijing, “as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual interest,” Jen Psaki said.
Therefore, the United States raised its voice even more, they, who already considered “deeply troubling” the position of “alliance of China with Russia” in the face of the war in Ukraine, after a very long recent meeting in Rome between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, chief diplomat of the Communist Party of China.
– “Friendship without borders” –
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, the Chinese communist regime, which prioritizes relations with Moscow and shares deep hostility with Russia towards the United States, has refrained from calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
But the “boundless friendship” professed by Beijing and Moscow is being tested by the war in Ukraine, and President Xi Jinping’s regime appears to have been overwhelmed by Ukrainian resistance to the Russian offensive and the strength of Western sanctions.
Aside from the question of possible military assistance to Russia, Washington does not want China to help Moscow ease the impact of these unprecedentedly harsh sanctions, which should strangle the Vladimir regime financially and economically.
“President Biden’s priority (during the call) will be to ask China not to give Russia funds to compensate for international sanctions, and also not to send equipment for the Russian military machine to Ukraine,” said Ryan Huss, an expert at the Brookings Research Institute. a former adviser to President Barack Obama on China, told AFP.
Xi Jinping, for his part, “must choose between different priorities. He attaches great importance to partnership with Russia, but does not want to undermine relations with the West, on which China’s access to “certain targeted technologies” depends. he said.
“The interests of China and Russia do not coincide. Putin wants to blow up the international system, and President Xi sees himself as the architect of a new international order,” the expert analyzes again.