After China meeting, Blinken says Beijing’s talk of Ukraine peace ‘doesn’t add up’
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meeting in New York on Sept 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored strong US concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base in talks on Sept 27 with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, saying Beijing’s talk of peace in Ukraine “doesn’t add up”.
In a meeting with Mr Wang on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Blinken said he also raised China’s “dangerous and destabilising actions” in the South China Sea and discussed improving communication between their militaries.
Mr Blinken told a press conference that he and Mr Wang also discussed ways to disrupt the flow of drugs into the US, and the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
About 70 per cent of the machine tools Russia is importing and 90 per cent of the microelectronics come from China and Hong Kong, Mr Blinken added.
That was materially helping Moscow to produce the missiles, rockets, armoured vehicles and munitions needed to perpetuate its war, he said.
“So when Beijing says that, on the one hand, it wants peace, it wants to see an end to the conflict, but on the other hand, is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Mr Putin continue the aggression, that doesn’t add up.”
Mr Wang said his country’s position on the war in Ukraine had always emphasised the need for peace through talks, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The United States should stop smearing and planting evidence against China, imposing sanctions indiscriminately, and using this (conflict)... to create and encourage confrontations between different camps,” it cited Mr Wang as saying.
On Sept 27, China and Brazil pressed ahead with an effort to gather developing countries behind a Ukraine peace plan, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dismissal of the initiative as serving Moscow’s interests.
The meeting of 17 nations was chaired by Mr Wang and Brazilian foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim.
Mr Wang told reporters that they discussed the need to prevent escalation, avoid use of weapons of mass destruction and prevent attacks on nuclear power plants.
The White House and the European Union this week said they were deeply concerned by a Reuters report that Russia has set up a weapons programme in China
Earlier on Sept 27, Mr Wang declined to comment on the report, when queried by a reporter at the UN headquarters.
Mr Blinken said “pressing Iran, North Korea and China... to stop providing weapons, artillery, machinery and other support” for Russia was crucial to achieving a lasting peace in Ukraine.
China and the US, the world’s two biggest economies, are at odds on a wide range of issues such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, US export curbs on advanced chip technology, trade tariffs, Taiwan and human rights.
Beijing has repeatedly complained about US ties and arms supplies to Taiwan. It has also urged Washington to scrap tariffs on its goods and denounced US proposals to ban its software and hardware in vehicles due to national security concerns.
Last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that the challenges to the US posed by China exceeded those of the Cold War
Relations plummeted in 2023 after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met Chinese President Xi Jinping in August
The White House said then that a call was being planned soon between Mr Xi and US President Joe Biden.
Asked about this after meeting Mr Wang, Mr Blinken said he had nothing to announce, but the two officials had agreed on the importance of their leaders communicating and added: “I fully anticipate that we’ll see that in the weeks and months ahead.” REUTERS
