China has made a sharper than ever statement about Russia's war against Ukraine, blaming Russian aggression on NATO, analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted in a new summary.
On April 26, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China and accused China of supporting the Russian defense industry, which undermines European and transatlantic security. Blinken said that China supplies Russia with machine tools, microelectronics, nitrocellulose (used in the production of gunpowder and explosives) and other dual-purpose goods, and threatened Beijing with sanctions.
After that, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Wang Wenbin, said that Russia imports more than 60% of dual-purpose goods from the United States and other Western countries. He also shifted the responsibility for the "Ukrainian crisis", which is what China calls the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, onto NATO. Beijing added that negotiations between the aggressor country and Ukraine will be "promoted" further.
"Wan's statement is noticeably tougher than previous Chinese statements regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which China was portrayed as an objective and impartial mediator in future peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and the Kremlin news resource TASS interpreted Wang's statements as placing "direct responsibility" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine on NATO". — noted in ISW.
Analysts believe that the Kremlin can use this Chinese statement to claim that Beijing supports Russian aggression.
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