US intelligence suggests that China could be on the brink of “sending arms to Russia” and the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Beijing this will have “serious consequences.”
A senior state department official said that Beijing is trying to “have it both ways” by claiming they want to hold peace negotiations and at the same time China are talking “concerning” steps as the poised to send “lethal support” to Moscow.
Blinken told NBC, “There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the US has to “face up to and resolve the damage” to bilateral relations “caused by the indiscriminate use of force.”
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This is in relation to the US shooting down what they believed to be a Chinese spy balloon in its airspace.
The Chinese Ministry warned, “If the US insists on taking advantage of the issue, escalating the hype, and expanding the situation, China will follow through to the end, and the US will bear all the consequences.”
China is currently supplying Moscow with non-lethal aid but since the shooting down of the spy balloon Beijing are seriously contemplating sending “lethal” weaponry to Russia.
Blinken told CBS after meeting his counterpart, Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi, Munich Security Conference in Germany that the US are worried.
He said, “There’s a whole gamut of things that fit in that category, everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves.”
Blinken added, “We have seen them provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine.
“The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship.”
China’s diplomat Wang Yi said that NATO have been sending various types of lethal support to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
He pointed out, “I suggest that everybody starts to think calmly, especially friends in Europe, about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war.”
Wang Yi added that there are those in Europe and the West who “seemingly don’t want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon.”
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