This week, the U.S. obtained information signaling that China may be open to providing aid to Russia in the form of military and financial assistance. China denied claims that Russia requested assistance and Russia has said it did not ask Bejing for military aid, but a U.S. official warned that if China was helping Russia they would not admit it.
It remains unclear if China plans to help Russia in their invasion of Ukraine, but during a seven-hour meeting in Rome between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leaders, Biden warned that there would be “potential implications and consequences” if they supported Russia.
“We are watching very closely to the extent to which the PRC [People’s Republic of China] or any country in the world provides support material, economic, financial, rhetorical otherwise, to this war of choice that President [Vladimir] Putin is waging against the government of Ukraine, against the state of Ukraine and against the people of Ukraine,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news briefing Monday.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi stated that Beijing did not want to be impacted by Western sanctions targeting Russia.
“China is not a party to the crisis, nor does it want the sanctions to affect China,” he said on Monday.
Multiple officials also noted economic consequences may stop China from helping Russia, however, others are skeptical citing China’s alliance with Russia. The country still refuses to call Russia’s war on Ukraine an “invasion,” and declined to join the long list of countries that enacted sanctions on Russia.
So far, China has continued relations with both the U.S. and Russia and there is no evidence that the country would completely cut off Russia.
