"China still stands by Russia": US Secretary of State Blinken criticizes Beijing for the Ukraine war

Created: 07/11/2022, 09:35 am

By: Sven Hauberg

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of siding with Russia in the Ukraine war (archive photo).

© Al Drago/UPI Photo/Imago

One cannot be neutral in the Ukraine war: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken harshly criticized China on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

Munich/Bali – In a keynote address at the end of May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described China as “the greatest long-term challenge to the international order”.

On Friday (July 8) he met Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali - and repeated his criticism of the Chinese government during the five-hour conversation.

Blinken found clear words for Beijing's course in the Ukraine conflict in particular: "The People's Republic of China still stands by Russia," said Blinken after the meeting.

Beijing claims to be neutral, but you can't do that in a war where there's a "clear aggressor" and a "clear victim."

Blinken also criticized the fact that China reproduces Russian propaganda, shields Moscow in international organizations and participates in joint maneuvers with Russia.

He conveyed to Wang Yi that "this is truly a moment for all of us to stand up, as one G20 country after another has done, to condemn the aggression," Blinken said.

In a statement on the conversation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not address Blinken's allegations and did not mention the Ukraine war.

China and the USA: The Ukraine war is not the only strain on relations

Relations between China and the USA are currently not only burdened by the Ukraine war.

The trade conflict that the then US President Donald Trump launched against China in 2018 is still between Beijing and Washington.

According to media reports, the Biden government intends to lift some of the punitive tariffs imposed on Chinese imports under Trump soon.

However, initially only goods worth ten billion dollars should be affected by the relief;

in all, the US had imposed tariffs on Chinese imports worth $370 billion.

At the meeting in Bali, Wang Yi now demanded that the US must "lift the tariffs imposed on China as soon as possible".

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In addition, a de facto import ban on goods from the Chinese province of Xinjiang came into force in the USA at the end of June.

Since then, importers have had to prove that the products are not manufactured using forced labour, which is considered extremely difficult.

Observers assume that almost no products from Xinjiang will be allowed to be imported into the USA.

Human rights activists accuse the Chinese government of keeping hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim Uyghur minority in re-education camps in the province and of using some of them to do forced labor.

China denies the allegations and speaks of training centers that are visited voluntarily.

After his conversation with Wang, Blinken once again called the Chinese actions a “genocide”.

China and USA: Beijing is aggressive

Wang Yi was aggressive in the conversation with Blinken.

The US has a wrong image of China, its policy towards Beijing has "deviated from the right path", according to the Chinese foreign minister, and relations between the two countries have reached a "dead end".

The Chinese threats against Taiwan were also a topic of conversation between Blinken and Wang Yi.

He expressed "the deep concern of the United States at Beijing's increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity towards Taiwan," the US Secretary of State said.

China regards the democratically governed island state as a renegade province and is threatening military conquest.

Chinese and US foreign ministers Wang Yi (left) and Antony Blinken met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

© Xu Qin/Xinhua/Imago

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FBI chief Christopher Wray said in London on Wednesday that a Chinese invasion would "present one of the most appalling economic disruptions the world has ever seen";

Wray also described the government in Beijing as "the greatest long-term threat" to the economic and national security of Britain, the US and their allies in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

The United States has been supplying Taiwan with defensive weapons for years, but has left open whether it would also provide direct military support to the government in Taipei in the event of a Chinese attack.

A State Department spokesman on Thursday accused Wray of spreading lies.

China and the USA: Many areas of conflict, but also a lot of dialogue

Despite the many areas of conflict and the harsh rhetoric, Chinese and US Americans keep coming together for talks.

In mid-June, Yang Jiechi, Beijing's top diplomat, and US security adviser Jake Sullivan met in Luxembourg for talks that the White House subsequently described as "frank, substantial and constructive".

Also in June, Chinese and US defense ministers Wei Fenghe and Lloyd Austin met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

While Wei openly threatened war against Taiwan, Austin said Beijing must "refrain from further destabilizing actions towards Taiwan."

China's foreign minister met with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Thursday (July 7).

Lavrov said at the meeting that Russia and China want to "further expand the scope and reach of practical cooperation."

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to Lavrov, the relations between the two countries "have enormous potential".

Wang said China will "continue to take an objective and impartial position" on the Ukraine conflict and "support all efforts that contribute to a peaceful solution to the crisis."

Also speaking to EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell on Thursday, Wang said "all of China's efforts so far have come down to making peace and promoting talks."