U.S. To China: Your Support For Russian Aggression Worsens Ties

The Associated Press (AP) reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, July 9, 2022, that China's support for Russia's war in Ukraine is complicating US-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues.

Photo Insert: US Secretary of State and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speak to the press after the latest talks between the two countries.

Blinken said he voiced great worry to Foreign Minister Wang Yi about China's stance on Russia's actions in Ukraine during five hours of talks in their first face-to-face encounter since October, and that he did not accept Beijing's assurances that it is neutral in the crisis.

According to Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Japan, the talks were organized as part of a fresh attempt to try to reign in or at least moderate the rampant antagonism that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

“We are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be “neutral” in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even if it were possible, “I don’t believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.”

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing foreign meddling in its domestic affairs, would take a similar stance with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However, it has not done so, instead opting for what US officials regard as a hybrid approach that is harming the international rules-based order. Every nation, including China, stands to lose if that order is undermined, according to Blinken.

The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russia’s war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.

However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from the G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.

“There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated,” Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russia’s actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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