US ambassador calls China’s technical support to Russia during war a ‘mistake’ | World News

US Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns said on Wednesday that China is supporting Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by providing technology for large-scale missiles and other weapons, which is a big mistake.

In a speech in the Chinese financial centre of Shanghai, Burns also said that Russia’s invasion, now in its third year, has become an existential crisis for Europe.

“We believe it is a huge mistake to allow thousands of Chinese companies to supply so many components, technology components, microprocessors and nitrocellulose to Russia to bolster the Russian Federation’s defense industrial base for this brutal war,” Burns said.

China is not neutral but has de facto taken Russia’s side in this war, the ambassador said, adding that its decision directly contradicts China’s long-standing insistence on sovereignty and territorial integrity.

China insists it does not provide direct military assistance to Russia, but has maintained strong trade relations throughout the conflict and has hosted visits between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China is also a major buyer of Russian oil and gas, providing a lifeline for Moscow’s war economy, which is under international sanctions. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China and Russia signed an agreement pledging boundless friendship. China refuses to label the invasion as such and blames NATO for provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese side to Burns’ comments. They were made during a seminar on Chinese-American relations, which focused on the life of career diplomat Henry Kissinger, who died last year.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Burns also criticized Beijing for undermining people-to-people cultural and educational exchanges by interrogating and intimidating citizens who attend U.S.-organized events in China, tightening restrictions on the embassy’s social media posts, and stoking anti-American sentiment.

His comments sparked a rebuke from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

It is the US, not China, that has disrupted and prevented cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday. The US has used national security as a pretext to harass, interrogate and deport Chinese students entering the US. Such measures have caused enormous harm to those affected. They have had a deterrent effect.

In Washington, the State Department fully agrees with all of the ambassador’s statements in the interview, said spokesman Matthew Miller.

It is very difficult to improve people-to-people relations when the Chinese government is either harassing American citizens who are in China or Chinese citizens who are participating in American programs or are attempting to do so, Miller said.

The US State Department has stated in the past that it welcomes Chinese students. However, less than one-tenth of one percent of them have been detained or denied admission.

Relations between Washington and Beijing also remain strained over trade disputes, territorial disputes and the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan. The US maintains close political and military ties with Taiwan, although there are no formal diplomatic relations out of respect for Beijing.

China claims the island as its own territory and will annex it by force if necessary. In recent days, it has threatened to hunt down and sentence to death the island’s closest defenders of independence. There has been no indication of how it intends to respond to this threat.

First published: June 27, 2024 | 6:52 am IS