News inputs relayed to our War News Room by our North America Correzpondent, Mike Baruah.
Washington, DC – TELEPHONIC TALKS BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS OF THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, TODAY. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN OF U.S.A. WILL SPEAK WITH PRESIDENT XI JINPING OF PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA. FURTHER DETAILS ARE NOT KNOWN AND WE AWAIT THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT POST THEIR PEACE TALKS.
In recent days, several top officials in the United States have discouraged China from backing Russia in its war in Ukraine amid reports that Moscow has requested military assistance from Beijing.
While Chinese officials have downplayed the reports, experts say the US’s public pressure campaign on China could define an already shaky relationship between the two nations for years to come.
“This has the potential to be a turning point in US-China relations,” Robert Ross, a political science professor at Boston College, stated today.
President of the Peoples’ Republic of China
General Secretary, Chinese Communist Party. [ CCP ]
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Chairman, Central Military Commission.
Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, China has taken a neutral stance publicly, backing talks to end the deadly conflict and urging “maximum restraint” and de-escalation.
But after hours-long talks between senior US and Chinese officials on Monday, Washington warned Beijing of “consequences” should it provide military or financial assistance to Moscow. That warning came after US media, citing unidentified American officials, reported that Russia had requested military assistance from China – an allegation that Beijing appeared to deny.
US officials have repeatedly stressed that Russia is facing setbacks in its invasion, despite its continued bombing of Ukrainian towns and cities. The war has pushed more than three million people to flee Ukraine so far, according to the United Nations.
Ross said if China decides to back the Russian War Effort in Ukraine, the US would respond by restricting economic ties with China, as well as authorising a “far larger US military budget to deal” with Beijing.
“The Chinese face a decision as to whether or not they want to align themselves with Russia – against Europe and the United States – and should they do so, they would also encourage the United States to treat China as one of its foremost adversaries and elicit a Cold War confrontation.”
High-level meeting
The heightened tensions prompted a meeting in Rome on Monday between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and the director of China’s Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, Yang Jiechi.
Sullivan made Washington’s concerns “clear” to Yang during the talks, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said after the meeting.
“We are watching very closely the extent to which the PRC [People’s Republic of China] or any country in the world provides support – material, economic, financial, rhetorical, otherwise – to this war that President [Vladimir] Putin is waging” against Ukraine, Price told reporters. “And we have been very clear – both privately with Beijing, publicly with Beijing – that there would be consequences for any such support.”
A senior US administration official later told reporters on condition of anonymity that the Sullivan-Yang meeting was an “intense seven-hour session”.
China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency said in a statement after the meeting on Monday that “Yang stressed that the Chinese side resolutely opposes any word and deeds that spread false information, or distort and discredit China’s position”.
Over the past weeks, China abstained from a United Nations Security Council proposal that aimed to condemn the Russian invasion, as well as from a similar resolution that passed overwhelmingly in the UN General Assembly. The Security Council measure was vetoed by Russia.
China also recently appeared to give credence to Russian allegations that it had discovered a biological weapons programme in Ukraine – accusations that were dismissed by US, European and Ukrainian officials as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
China-Russia-US relations
China and Russia enjoy warm ties, and in early February, the two nations released a lengthy joint statement that reaffirmed their alliance and expressed opposition to NATO expansion – Russia’s main grievance leading up to its all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Washington and Beijing has been tested in the past few years as the US prioritised strategic competition with China in its foreign policy under former President Donald Trump, a position fully embraced by Joe Biden.
Amid efforts to mend US-China ties, the Biden administration irked China when it secured a deal with the UK to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines last year. Biden also has pushed to revive the Asia Pacific Quad alliance with India, Australia and Japan, and met with the countries’ leaders at the White House in September.
