Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is set to warn China about Beijing’s continued support for Russia in a visit to the Asian country this week, saying that Washington will take whatever steps necessary to defend its national security interests and those of its allies.
His warning will come as officials in Washington raise wider concerns about China being used to circumvent the export controls and sanctions regimes on Russia.
A senior state department official said that Blinken will share the US’ “deep concerns” about China’s continued support for Russia’s defence industry as he tours the country and meets his Chinese counterpart.
The spokesman said that recent weeks had demonstrated the US’ commitment to “taking the steps necessary to defend our national interests”.
“We’re prepared to take steps when we believe necessary against firms that ... severely undermine security in both Ukraine and Europe.”
‘Clear warning’
Following a week where the US and UK laid out a series of defence-related measures on exports, one source told the FT that Blinken’s message would be “the clearest warning yet that the US had delivered in person to Chinese officials”.
At the G7 meeting in Italy last Friday (19 April), Blinken told his fellow ministers that China was the “primary contributor” to Russia’s defence industry.
“We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defence industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade.”
Last week, the House of Representatives approved the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, which would require US financial institutions to suspend engagement with Chinese institutions involved in transactions of Iranian oil, while UK deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden identified actions by Beijing and Moscow as a threat to the UK’s supply chains.
Visit
Blinken will visit China from April 24 to 26 and hold meetings in Shanghai and Beijing, meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, and will discuss a number of other issues including joint anti-drug smuggling operations, the South China Sea and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
The US foreign policy chief is expected to emphasise cooperation with China on certain issues, while maintaining a hard line on other issues.
Last November, presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to the ‘San Francisco vision’, which aimed to repair US-China relations after a rocky few years under former president Donald Trump.
