The United States is “confident” that China is “considering” sending lethal aid to Russia for its war against Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns said in a new interview.
Burns made the comments in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation airing Sunday, one week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began publicly accusing Beijing of considering such a step. Blinken’s warnings, which Burns argued were a deterrence effort, come as China struggles to continue presenting itself as a neutral peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war while maintaining its “no limits” partnership with Moscow.
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“Well, we’re confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment. We also don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment,” the CIA director told anchor Margaret Brennan. “That’s why, I think, Secretary Blinken and the President have thought it important to make very clear what the consequences of that would be as well…because it would be a very risky and unwise bet.”
“I think the Chinese are also trying to weigh the consequences of, you know, what the concerns we’ve expressed are, you know, about providing lethal equipment,” he later added. “Where’s the point at which, you know, they would run into some pretty serious consequences. And that’s what we’ve tried to make clear.”
Beijing’s efforts to perform the delicate balancing act of appeasing Ukraine’s allies and the Kremlin has only caused further friction with the West.
China was one of 32 countries on Thursday that abstained from a U.N. vote calling on Russian forces to immediately withdraw from Ukraine. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Xi had “agreed” to a meeting in Moscow. That summit is expected to take place in the coming months.
President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC News that aired Friday that he did not expect China to provide lethal weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. He pledged to ABC’s David Muir that the U.S. “would respond” if such a move occurred.
“I don’t anticipate- we haven’t seen it yet,” Biden said. “But I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia.”
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U.S. officials began speaking to media outlets about diplomatic efforts to convince Beijing to deny the Kremlin’s weapons request after Blinken went public with the U.S. assessment last weekend.
“Our message to the [People’s Republic of China] has been consistent: They would decide to provide lethal assistance or to provide systematic assistance to Russia in its sanctions evasion at their own peril,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Thursday. “It would come with costs and consequences from the United States, from the international community.”
