During a rare meeting with Beijing’s senior diplomat, Wang Yi, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China against giving “lethal support” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and denounced the claimed Chinese spy balloon’s infringement of US airspace.
The two senior officials met late on Saturday in Munich, Germany, outside of a conference on international security, only hours after Wang criticised Washington for being “hysterical” in a long-running disagreement over the US shooting down the suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Since Washington claimed that China sent a spy balloon over the country before US fighter aircraft. Shot it down on instructions from President Joe Biden, relations between the two nations have been tense. The conflict also occurred at a time when Beijing’s response to the Ukrainian War is being closely watched by the West.
Blinken stated that he made it clear to Wang that doing so “would have serious consequences in our relationship”. In an interview that will air on Sunday morning on NBC News’s “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.” The US is extremely concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia, Blinken said.
According to Blinken, Washington would soon release more information. “There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, including weapons.”
A senior State Department official told reporters on a briefing call that China was attempting to “have it both ways”. By saying it wanted to contribute to peace and stability while also making “concerning” moves to back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the condition of anonymity, the senior source said, “[The] secretary was pretty forthright in warning about the implications. And consequences of China providing material support to Russia or helping Russia with systematic sanctions evasion.”
Just before Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Russia and China signed a “no limits” partnership. As Moscow’s ties to the West have deteriorated, so have their economic ties.
Some have warned that a Russian triumph would influence China’s policies towards Taiwan. Thus the West has been concerned of China’s attitude to the conflict in Ukraine. China has resisted denouncing the conflict or labelling it a “invasion”.
Without naming any specific parties, he added that “certain forces” “appears to not want discussions to succeed, or for the war to stop soon.”
Blinken also expressed his disapproval of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon’s intrusion. During his discussion with Wang, the secretary of state stated in a tweet.
This month’s balloon flight over US soil caused a stir in Washington and forced Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing. Both sides saw that trip, which would have been the first by a US secretary of state to China in five years, as an opportunity to normalise the increasingly tense relations.
Blinken claimed that Wang did not apologise for the balloon’s flight in the interview with NBC.
Regarding the balloon’s breach of US airspace, I informed him very plainly that that was unacceptable,”.Blinken said, adding that he had not talked to Wang about delaying his trip to China.
When the US military shot down the 60-meter (200-foot) balloon on February 4 and claimed it was for weather monitoring and had blown off course, China responded strongly. Washington claimed that it was unmistakably a surveillance balloon with a sizable electronic-holding substructure.
According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Wang claimed that the way Washington responded to the balloon had harmed their nations’ relations.
Wang “made plain China’s solemn position on the ‘airship incident,'” according to Xinhua. And “urged the US side to alter direction, acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force caused to China-US relations.”
Such behaviour is astonishing, almost crazy, to have despatched a powerful fighter plane to shoot down a balloon with a missile, he said.
He also charged that the US was denying China’s economic development and actively working to obstruct it.
We want the US to approach China with pragmatism and positivity so that we can cooperate, the official added.
The State Department had concerns about whether Blinken and Wang would meet up again in person at the conference in Munich.
In Munich as well, US Vice President Kamala Harris emphasised how Washington was “concerned that Beijing has strengthened its alliance with Moscow since the war began.”
Looking ahead, she stated that “any actions by China to offer lethal support to Russia would merely reward aggression, keep the killing going, and further undermine a rules-based world.”
