U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that China’s words and actions regarding ending Russia’s war on Ukraine do not “add up,” as the Beijing government continues to allow Chinese companies to “fuel Russia’s war machine.”
The United States and China are planning a call between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in the coming days, with China’s material support for Russia in the war on Ukraine expected to be a key topic on the U.S. agenda.
Friday afternoon, Blinken held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Following talks that lasted more than an hour, Blinken told reporters at a news conference that any peace plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine must be based on the principles of the U.N. Charter, particularly territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
“A peace in which the aggressor gets everything that it sought, and the victim does not have its rights upheld, is not a recipe for a lasting peace, and certainly not a just one,” Blinken said when asked about a peace proposal by China and Brazil.
Earlier on Friday, China and Brazil pushed forward with efforts to rally developing countries behind a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rejection of the initiative, viewing it as favorable to Moscow’s interests.
The meeting between Blinken and Wang came amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese firms supplying semiconductor chips and drones to Moscow, which have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine.
Blinken said, “Roughly 70% of the machine tools that Russia’s importing, coming from China, Hong Kong. Ninety percent of the microelectronics, from China, Hong Kong. And this is materially helping the Russians produce the missiles, the rockets, the armored vehicles, the munitions that they need to perpetuate the war, to continue their aggression.”
In New York, Wang told reporters that China had discussed with other countries the importance of preventing escalation in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Russia and Ukraine are neighbors that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option,” Wang said, emphasizing that other nations should support an international peace conference involving Russia and Ukraine.
Source: VOA
