US officials meet China’s vice-foreign minister after sanctions warning

WASHINGTON – US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer met China’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu in Washington on May 30, a day after Washington

accused Beijing’s leadership of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine

and warning that China could face further Western sanctions.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told a news briefing that the meeting was part of intensive diplomacy in the past year to responsibly manage competition in the US-China relationship, and the US expected more such senior-level engagement.

Mr Patel said the US, its Group of Seven partners, and other EU and Nato countries shared the view that China’s support for Russia “not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security”.

He declined to provide details of any future sanctions when asked whether those might target Chinese leaders, given Washington’s comments, but added: “If China does not curtail its support for Russia’s defence industrial base, the US will be prepared to take further steps.”

Separately, the White House said Mr Finer also met Mr Ma on May 30 and the two discussed topics like counter-narcotics, the Taiwan Strait, the Ukraine war and efforts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Ma and Mr Finer had “candid, in-depth and constructive” talks, according to a post on X by Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng. Mr Ma stressed that Washington should “earnestly respect China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”, Mr Xie wrote.

Mr Ma also met US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss “important issues in bilateral relations”, the post said.

However, Chinese media sounded a more negative note after the meetings concluded.

“Negative factors between China and the US are still rising and accumulating, mainly because... (US) methods of suppressing China are constantly being refreshed,” a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV wrote in a post on the morning of May 31, citing “relevant insiders”.

“If the US continues to try to infringe on and endanger China’s sovereignty and security interests on China’s core issues... then China has more abundant and stronger countermeasures to be introduced,” it warned.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Brussels on May 29, Mr Campbell said there was an urgent need for European and Nato countries “to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilising in the heart of Europe”.

The Biden administration has

stepped up warnings about China’s support for Russia

and issued an executive order in December that threatened sanctions on financial institutions helping Russia skirt Western sanctions.

Mr Campbell said Chinese support, “with the backing of its leadership”, was helping Moscow reconstitute elements of its military, including long-range missile, artillery and drone capabilities, and its ability to track battlefield movements.

In April, the US imposed sanctions on 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong following repeated warnings from Washington about China’s support for Russia’s military.

After those steps, China’s embassy in Washington said Beijing oversees the export of dual-use articles in accordance with laws and regulations, and that normal trade and economic interactions between China and Russia are in line with World Trade Organisation rules and market principles.

In a speech in Berlin on May 31, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is expected to call for further action to stem Russia’s sanctions evasion and deliver a warning on China’s role, highlighting the December executive order.

In April, a US official told Reuters that Washington had preliminarily discussed sanctions on some Chinese banks but did not yet have a plan to implement such measures. REUTERS