China bristled after the United States said Beijing may be considering sending lethal aid such as weapons and ammunition to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
An official with the Chinese Foreign Ministry pushed back on the accusation on Monday. Over the weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that China is “strongly considering” providing lethal aid to Moscow.
“It is the U.S., not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield. The U.S. is in no position to tell China what to do. We would never stand for finger-pointing, or even coercion and pressurizing from the U.S. on our relations with Russia,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said.
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Blinken, in addressing China’s stance on Moscow’s invasion, said during an interview with NBC News that China is “trying to have it both ways.”
“Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of nonlethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort,” Blinken said.
The remarks come a day after Blinken met with Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking diplomat, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Blinken said he warned Wang against providing weapons or ammunition to Russia, which has been waging a brutal war against Ukraine for the past year.
Blinken made a point of noting that China has not yet taken the actual step of providing lethal aid to Moscow, only that Beijing is considering such a move.
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“We see China considering this. We have not seen them cross that line,” Blinken said. “So, I think it’s important that we make clear, as I did this evening in my meeting with Wang Yi, that this is something that is of deep concern to us.”
“I made clear the importance of not crossing that line and the fact that it would have serious consequences on our own relationship, something that we do not need on top of the balloon incident that China is engaged in,” he added.
