The United States and European Union warned Monday of unspecified consequences should China provide lethal aid for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters there would be “real consequences” in U.S.-China relations and that he had shared the U.S. concerns directly with top Chinese foreign policy official Wang Yi.
“I think China understands what’s at risk were it to proceed with providing that support to Russia,” Blinken said.
He added that many other countries would take such military aid from China to Russia very seriously.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a briefing Monday that the United States is not in a position to make demands of China, and that China’s relations with Russia is based on “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties.”
“It is the United States and not China that is endlessly shipping weapons to the battlefield,” Wang Wenbin said.
European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell told reporters in Brussels that he had also discussed the situation with Wang Yi and asked him not to provide arms to Russia.
Borrell said such Chinese aid “would be a red line in our relationship.”
He spoke ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers and said Ukraine’s most urgent need is ammunition. Borrell said the ministers would discuss how to more quickly provide arms, especially ammunition, to Ukrainian forces.
Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
