By Orowo Victoria Ojieh
China’s ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, said on Sunday that his country was not sending weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, but he did not definitively rule out the possibility Beijing might do so in the future.
In a lengthy phone call on Friday, US President Joe Biden warned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that there would be “consequences” if Beijing provided material support to Moscow as it prosecutes its war against Kyiv. Qin said that the call was “candid, deep, and constructive.
President Xi Jinping made China’s position very clear, that is China stands for peace, opposes war.” When asked on CBS on Sunday whether China might send money or weapons to Russia, Ambassador Qin Gang spoke about the present, saying: “There is disinformation about China providing military assistance to Russia. We reject that.”
Qin said that China isn’t sending arms to any party involved, only aid including food, medicine, sleeping bags and baby formula. Beijing, which shares with Moscow a sense of hostility and resentment toward the United States, has been unwilling to criticize its Russian ally over the invasion of Ukraine, despite the urging of US, British, and other officials. Qin, who was interviewed on CBS talk show “Face the Nation,” said Beijing will continue to “promote peace talks and urge immediate ceasefire.”
But the sort of public condemnation urged by many in the West “doesn’t help,” he said. “We need reason, we need courage and we need good diplomacy.”
The Chinese foreign ministry has said the West must take Russian security concerns into account. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday called China to join in condemning the Russian invasion, The Trumpet gathered.
“As time goes on, and as the number of Russian atrocities mounts up, I think it becomes steadily more difficult and politically embarrassing for people either actively or passively to condone Putin’s invasion,” he told the Sunday Times.
Mikhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pleaded with Beijing on Saturday to “condemn Russian barbarism.”
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Analysts say if Beijing were to deliver military support to Russia, it could transform an already explosive transatlantic standoff into a global dispute putting the West against the world’s second-biggest economy, prompting turmoil on international markets.
He ambassador said that China has and will continue to do everything it can to ease the conflict, stating: “China’s trusted relations with Russia, it’s not a liability, actually it’s an asset in the international efforts to solve the crisis in a peaceful way. China is part of the solution, it’s not part of the problem.
