Lynn Berry, The Associated Press
Posted Sunday February 19, 2023 2:29 PM EST
Last updated on Sunday, February 19, 2023 3:00 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence is hinting that China is considering supplying Russia with arms and ammunition, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that would pose a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken said the United States had long been concerned that China would supply arms to Russia. He referred to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of a partnership without borders when they met just weeks before Putin dispatched his troops to Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since then, relations between the two countries have only grown stronger.
“We watched it very, very closely. And for the most part, China has been busy providing rhetorical, political and diplomatic support to Russia, but we have information that worries us that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine,” Blinken said in an interview, which aired on Sunday, a day after his meeting at a security conference in Munich with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign policy official.
“It was important for me to make it very clear to Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said.
With Putin determined to show progress on the battlefield as the war nears a year’s end, Russian forces have gone on the offensive in eastern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians are holding very strong, the Russians are taking appalling casualties in this effort,” Blinken said. He estimates that Russia has 97% of its ground forces stationed in Ukraine.
The Russians are also keen to seize more territory before Ukraine receives the more advanced weapons recently pledged by the US and its European allies.
“But what Secretary Blinken said is big news to me,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C. Graham said the world should “crack down on China” if it supplies deadly weapons to Russia, and he advised the Chinese leaders not to do anything rashly.
“For the Chinese, if you jump on the Putin bandwagon now, you’re dumber than dirt,” he said. “It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after seeing the movie. Do not do that.”
Graham said it was the “most disastrous thing that could happen to US-China relations.” … That would change everything forever.”
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent weeks after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon. China insists it was used primarily for meteorological research and has gone off course.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also expressed concern about any Chinese effort to arm Russia, saying “that would be a red line”.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former deputy army chief of staff, said he concurred with the Biden administration’s decision to expose China’s possible willingness to supply some deadly weapons to Russia. He said it could persuade China to hold back.
“And I think come out and expose and I would go further and tell them what we think they are trying to offer, China is likely to pull out after that public exposure,” Keane said.
Blinken and Graham were on ABC’s This Week, Thomas-Greenfield appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, and Keane spoke on Fox News Sunday.
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