Washington DC – In recent days, several top officials in the United States have discouraged China from supporting Russia in its war in Ukraine, amid reports that Moscow has requested military aid from Beijing.
While Chinese officials have downplayed the reports, experts say the US public pressure campaign on China could define already volatile relations between the two countries in the coming years.
“This has the potential to be a turning point in US-China relations,” Boston College political science professor Robert Ross told Al Jazeera.
Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, China has publicly taken a neutral stance, backing talks to end the deadly conflict and urging “maximum restraint” and de-escalation.
But after hours of talks between senior US and Chinese officials on Monday, Washington warned Beijing that there would be “consequences” if it provided military or financial aid to Moscow. The warning came after US media reported, citing unnamed US officials, that Russia had requested military aid from China – a charge Beijing appears to be denying.
US officials have repeatedly insisted that Russia faces setbacks in its offensive, despite relentless bombings of Ukrainian towns and cities. According to the United Nations, the war has so far prompted more than three million people to flee Ukraine.
Ross said that if China decides to support the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the US would authorize “a large US military budget to deal with” Beijing, while also restricting economic ties with China. Will answer.
“The Chinese are faced with a decision as to whether or not they wish to align themselves with Russia – against Europe and the United States – and should they do so, they may consider the United States to be China as one of its most prominent adversaries. Will encourage and achieve to consider it as one of the Cold War conflicts.”
high level meeting
Tensions escalated on Monday between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of China’s Foreign Affairs Commission, prompting a meeting in Rome.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said after the meeting that Sullivan explained Washington’s concerns to Yang during the talks.
“We are watching very closely to what extent the PRC is up” [People’s Republic of China] or any country in the world that provides support – material, economic, financial, rhetorical, otherwise – to this war of choice that the President [Vladimir] Putin is “fighting against Ukraine”, Price told reporters. “And we are very clear – both privately with Beijing, publicly with Beijing – that any such support will have consequences.”
A senior US administration official later told reporters on condition of anonymity that the Sullivan-Yang meeting was an “intense seven-hour meeting”.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a statement after the meeting on Monday that “Yang stressed that the Chinese side strongly opposes any words and acts that spread false information, or distort and distort China’s position.” defame”.
In past weeks, China has avoided a UN Security Council resolution that aimed to condemn the Russian aggression, as well as a similar resolution overwhelmingly passed at the UN General Assembly. The Security Council measure was vetoed by Russia.
China recently appeared to believe Russian accusations that it had discovered a biological weapons program in Ukraine – allegations dismissed by US, European and Ukrainian officials as part of a Russian propaganda campaign.
China-Russia-US Relations
China and Russia enjoy warm relations, and in early February, the two countries issued a lengthy joint statement reaffirming their alliance and expressing opposition to the expansion of NATO – Russia’s main complaint against Ukraine for its all-out leading to the attack.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Washington and Beijing has been tested over the past few years as the US has prioritized strategic competition with China in its foreign policy under former President Donald Trump, completely eclipsed by Joe Biden. The situation is gone.
Amid efforts to improve US-China relations, the Biden administration rattled China when it struck a deal with the UK last year to supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. Biden also pushed for reviving the Asia Pacific Quad alliance with India, Australia and Japan and met leaders of the countries at the White House in September.
The four countries issued a joint statement after talks with a “free, open, rules-based order, enshrined in international law and blatantly fearless” in a clear message to China, which responded by calling the group “exclusive” It was “doomed to fail”.
Tensions are also rising between Beijing and Washington and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region – which also includes Taiwan and the South China Sea, which China claims almost entirely as its own, despite competing claims from other countries in the region. . ,
The Pentagon and US lawmakers cited China’s countering in passing this year’s $777.7 billion defense budget.
“One of the great hopes for the Chinese is that the conflict in Ukraine will draw American resources, American resources away from the Asia-Pacific region,” said Christopher Herlin, associate professor of government and Asian studies at Bowdoin College in the US state of Maine. ,
“So of course, they’re trying to create the best possible situation that they can benefit to some degree if the American military attention and the attention of European allies is more toward Russia and less toward China.”
But if China aims to prolong the war in Ukraine, US officials have threatened sanctions against Beijing. “It is certainly something in the realm of possibility,” Herlin told Al Jazeera of the possibility of such sanctions.
“But it’s much more difficult because the US has huge economic ties with China. Obviously, there are far more businesses in the US that do business with China. It’s too much to try to link our economic ties to foreign policy.” will be expensive.”
‘This war is not good for China’
China has made it clear that it does not want to face economic penalties as a result of the war in Ukraine, as the US and its Western allies imposed swift and widespread sanctions against Russian banks, government officials and the wealthy elite, among others. Huh.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, “China is not a party to the crisis, still wants to be less affected by sanctions.”
Some US officials also stressed that it would be in China’s self-interest not to support Russia, instead urging Chinese officials to use their advantage with the Russian government to end the conflict.
“Our intention in our regular engagement with China … was to underline that this war is not good for China, that we want to see China use its influence with Russia to end this war. and at least want to help move these humanitarian corridors forward,” Victoria Nuland, the under-secretary of state for political affairs, told lawmakers last week.
Ultimately, China has shown so far that it wants to stay out of war, Professor Ross said.
But talks with the US are tense because Beijing, like all great powers, does not like to be threatened. “There was a tense conversation, but the US walked out of that meeting without being accused of any Chinese behavior,” Ross said.
“So it still seems clear that the Chinese haven’t done anything yet to get Americans concerned about excessive support for Russia.”
credited by aljazeera
This post was first published on Aljazeera, we published it via RSS feed courtesy of Aljazeera