China has denied reports that Russia asked the Chinese government for military and economic aid after the start of the war in Ukraine. “Recently, the US has been constantly spreading disinformation against China. This is malicious,” a spokesman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
China has always played a constructive role in promoting peace talks. The top priority now is that all parties exercise restraint in order to de-escalate the situation, the spokesman continued. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also denied the reports.
[Alle aktuellen Nachrichten zum russischen Angriff auf die Ukraine bekommen Sie mit der Tagesspiegel-App live auf ihr Handy. Hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen.]
Earlier, English-language media unanimously reported that, according to US officials, Russia asked China for military and economic aid after the start of the war in Ukraine.
The government officials, who were not named, did not provide any information on what weapons or ammunition Moscow was hoping to get from Beijing. It also remained unclear how or whether China reacted to the inquiries, as reported on Sunday by the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, among others.
Russia has also asked for economic support to limit the impact of the sanctions, it said.
The communist China has so far endeavored to adopt a more neutral stance in the conflict over Ukraine. Direct support for ally Russia is likely to bring China into conflict with supporters of Ukraine – and these western states represent the lion’s share of the global economy.
The consistent media reports came a day ahead of a scheduled meeting between US President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, and China’s top foreign policy chief, Yang Jiechi, in Rome on Monday. According to US information, it should also be about the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
China denied a corresponding request from Russia on Monday shortly after it became known.
[Alle aktuellen Entwicklungen im Ukraine-Krieg können Sie hier in unserem Newsblog verfolgen.]
The US government has repeatedly warned China and Chinese companies not to help Russia circumvent sanctions. In such a case, Chinese companies themselves could become the target of US punitive measures, it said.
Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that the government is “closely monitoring” the extent to which China is providing “material or economic support” to Russia. “That’s one of our concerns,” he said. However, the US government made it clear to Beijing that the US would not stand idly by if a country were to compensate Russia for the economic damage caused by the sanctions.
More on the Ukraine war at Tagesspiegel Plus:
At the People’s Congress session that ended on Friday, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang called for “extreme restraint” in Russia’s war in Ukraine to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe.
However, he continued to avoid criticizing Russia for the invasion. The prime minister also spoke out against international sanctions against Russia, which he believes are damaging to the world’s economic recovery.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov had previously said that Moscow could no longer access foreign exchange reserves worth around 300 billion US dollars because of the sanctions. “That’s about half of the reserves we had,” he told Russian TV channel Rossiya-1 on Sunday.
He pointed out that part of the gold and foreign exchange reserves are held in Chinese yuan and that the West is pressuring Beijing to restrict trade with Moscow. However, the minister was confident that relations with China would continue to improve. (dpa)
