Russia would struggle to sustain its invasion of Ukraine without China’s help, the US secretary of state has said.
Antony Blinken – speaking in Beijing following talks with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi – said he had “reiterated” serious concerns about China providing components that are “powering Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine”.
He added: “China is the top supplier of machine tools, microelectronics and nitrocellulose, which is critical to making munitions and rocket propellants and other dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp its defense industrial base,” he said during a news conference .
That industrial base is “churning out rockets, drones, tanks and other weapons that President Putin is using to invade a sovereign country”, he added.
Those weapons are being used to “demolish a power grid and other civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent children, women and men”, Mr Blinken said.
He went on: “Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support.
“In my meetings with NATO’s allies earlier this month and with our G7 partners just last week, I heard that same message: fueling Russia’s defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security.
“Beijing cannot achieve better relations with Europe while supporting the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.
“As we’ve told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core US interest.
“In our discussions today, I made it clear that if China does not address this problem, we will.”
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