China looking to arm Russia, says Antony Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused China of considering arming Russia in its war against Ukraine, ratcheting up tensions as the conflict hits its one-year mark.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Picture: AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused China of considering arming Russia in its war against Ukraine, ratcheting up tensions as the conflict hits its one-year mark this week.

Mr Blinken said in a round of Sunday US television shows that he had expressed “deep concerns” about the “possibility that China will provide lethal material support to Russia” in a meeting with Beijing’s top diplomat on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference late on Saturday.

“To date, we have seen Chinese companies … provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine. The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support,” he told CBS.

Mr Blinken said he believed such support would be in the form of weapons as well as ammunition. He did not divulge the information that the US had about China’s intentions, but said any such development would “have serious con­sequences” in Washington’s relationship with Beijing.

“There are various kinds of ­lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons,” he told NBC.

But Beijing strongly denied the claims on Monday, saying “it is the United States and not China that is endlessly shipping weapons to the battlefield”.

“We urge the United States to earnestly reflect on its own ­actions, and do more to alleviate the situation, promote peace and dialogue, and stop shifting blame and spreading false information,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Appearing on ABC, Mr Blinken emphasised that US President Joe Biden had warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as long ago as last March against sending weapons to Russia. Since that time, “China has been careful not to cross that line, including by holding off on selling lethal weapons systems for use on the battlefield,” according to an admin­istration source.

A top US Republican senator who also attended the Munich conference, Lindsey Graham, said it would be a serious mistake for China to provide Russia with weapons. Doing so now, he said, would be “dumber than dirt. It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie.”

The well-informed foreign policy hawk also said he had strong indications that the US would soon announce plans to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, which would represent a further step in the West’s gradually escalating ­efforts to arm Ukraine.

He said he believed the US should declare Russia a state sponsor of terror for its actions in Ukraine, which would mean that China or any other country supplying it with arms would face sanctions.

Both Russia and the West are facing depleted supplies of missiles and ammunition.

Also at the Munich conference, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell issued a stark warning about Ukraine’s dwindling supplies of munitions. “(Let’s) accelerate our military support to Ukraine because Ukraine is in a critical situation from the point of view with ammunition available,” Mr Borrell said. “This shortage of ammunition has to resolve quickly, it’s a matter of weeks.”

Mr Blinken had met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in ­Munich at a time when relations between the two powers were ­already fraught over the shooting down of an ­alleged Chinese spy balloon over US territory.

In a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry, Mr Wang had told Mr Blinken the US must “face up to and resolve the damage” of the countries’ relationship “caused by the indiscriminate use of force”.

Mr Wang had also told a panel at the conference that “some forces seemingly don’t want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon”.

Amid Western concerns that China is deepening ties with Russia despite the conflict, Mr Wang insisted that Beijing was playing a constructive role, and would support dialogue and potential peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

US State Department officials briefed journalists that China was trying to have it both ways by calling for peace and stability while simultaneously taking concerning steps to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Blinken “was quite blunt in warning about the implications and consequences of China providing material support to Russia or assisting Russia with systematic sanctions evasion”, the department official added.

The tough-sounding exchanges came a day after US Vice-President Kamala Harris said in Munich that Russia had committed “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine through “widespread and systemic” attacks on the country’s civilian population.

Mr Biden will speak in Warsaw later on Tuesday to hail NATO’s unprecedented effort to help Ukrainians save their country as he marks the war’s first year.

On the same day, President Vladimir Putin is set to give his own speech in Moscow, three days from the February 24 anniversary of Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine.

Additional reporting: AFP