The United States calls on China to crack down on private companies that support Russia’s war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday after a face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping .
The United States has asked China to be “vigilant in monitoring” that private companies do not sell sanctioned equipment to Russia that aids its military, Blinken said.
The Biden administration and its allies have seen their sanctions against Russia undermined by countries and companies that have allowed certain exports to the country that can be repurposed for military purposes, so-called “dual-use” technologies.
“What concerns us are private companies in China that could provide assistance, in some cases dual-purpose and in some cases clearly aimed at bolstering Russia’s military capability in Ukraine. It is a concern and it is something that I have raised with our Chinese counterparts and urged them to be vigilant in monitoring this,” Blinken said.
But the secretary said the United States had seen nothing to suggest the Chinese government violated its assurances not to provide lethal assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine.
“This is something that China has said over the past few weeks, and has repeatedly said not only to us, but to many other countries that have raised this concern, that they are not and will not be providing lethal assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine,” Blinken said.
“And that’s an important commitment and an important policy, and as I said, we haven’t seen anything contradicting that yet.”
Blinken’s remarks came at the end of a two-day summit in Beijing where he met with Xi and top Chinese foreign policy officials. The Secretary will then travel to London for the “Ukraine Recovery Conference” which will seek to galvanize public and private sector support to help Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts.
While Xi has backed Russian President Vladimir Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine and refrained from joining in on international sanctions — particularly the purchase of Russian oil exports — the Chinese leader appeared to heed international warnings against supplying arms directly to Moscow. .
Xi has also offered to work towards a peace settlement between Kyiv and Moscow, though such efforts have been met with skepticism in the West.
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