By PTI
WASHINGTON: China’s ambassador to the US is defending his country’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, contending such a rebuke will do nothing to stop the violence.
Qin Gang tells CBS’s “Face the Nation” that China’s condemnation would not help and that he is doubtful it would have any effect on Russia.
He says China wants “friendly, good neighbourly relations with Russia” and will keep up “normal trade, economic, financial, energy cooperation with Russia” as it continues “to promote peace talks” and urge an immediate ceasefire from Russia through negotiation and diplomacy.
Qin spoke after President Joe Biden last week warned Chinese President Xi Jinping of “consequences” if China gave material aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has since called on China to join Western countries and Japan in condemning Russia’s attack.
On Sunday, Qin said China is not providing any military assistance to Russia.
He insisted that China remains “against a war” and “will do everything” — short of condemnation — “to deescalate the crisis.”
There will be consequences for China if it decides to provide substantial military or financial support to the Russians that allow them to escape sanctions, a top American diplomat warned on Sunday.
In a call with China’s President Xi Jinping on Saturday, US President Joe Biden “detailed the implications and consequences” if Beijing were to provide “material support to Russia” in its attacks against Ukraine, the White House has said.
Biden spoke at length with China’s leader to dissuade Beijing from providing aid to Moscow.
US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told CNN in an interview that Biden was clear about his discussion with Xi, in which he made our position very well-known that there will be consequences if China decides to provide substantial military or financial support to the Russians that allow them to avoid the sanctions.
“The conversation was two hours long, but it was extraordinarily frank, it was detailed and substantive. And we made our position clear to the Chinese,” she said.
“They’re in an uncomfortable position. They have been put in a position of defending Russia against our principles of sovereignty and integrity of borders. So, they have to decide where they will go from this point, and not sit on the fence, and call out the Russian aggression for what it is, and not put themselves in the position of defending what is indefensible,” Thomas-Greenfield said about Beijing.
Accusing Russia of invading Ukraine in violation of all international norms, she said it is unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia, and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps.
Scores of Ukrainians from the besieged port city of Mariupol, who were forcibly deported to Russia are “disturbing” and “unconscionable” if true, Thomas-Greenfield asserted.
“So, this is something that we need to verify. Russia should not be moving Ukrainian citizens against their will into Russia,” she said.
“The Russians came to the Security Council on Friday with these spurious accusations that the US was supporting Ukraine’s chemical weapons programmes. And I’m not going to give that any more amplification here. What we see happening is, again, this is a false flag effort by the Russians. They are advancing what they might intend to do,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“We have seen it happen before. They are the ones who’ve used chemical weapons. They used them in Syria. They have used chemical weapons against their own people. And we are concerned that they may use chemical weapons in Ukraine,” she added.
Russia will face more consequences from the US if it uses chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine, Thomas-Greenfield warned further.
“We have been clear, if they escalate to this level, we will respond aggressively to what they are doing. You have seen the consequences so far of our actions against Russia and against Putin. And they are feeling those consequences. And they will feel more if they take this unfortunate decision to use chemical weapons,” she added.
The US had found that the Putin regime used chemical weapons in the poisoning of opposition leader and fierce Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny in 2020, and in 2018 against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in England.
The US’ Indo-Pacific strategy is as “dangerous” as NATO’s eastward expansion in Europe resulting in Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine, a senior Chinese diplomat has said.
“With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) should have been consigned to history alongside the Warsaw Pact,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said while addressing the International Forum on Security and Strategy hosted by the Centre for International Security and Strategy of Tsinghua University on Saturday.
“However, rather than breaking up, NATO has kept strengthening and expanding. One could well anticipate the consequences going down this path. The crisis in Ukraine is a stern warning,” he said.
Chinese officials say NATO’s plans to admit Kyiv heightened Russia’s insecurity resulting in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military action against Ukraine.
Ever since Russia began military operations in Ukraine last month, China, a close ally of Moscow, has been treading a fine line, declining to condemn it as an invasion.
“All sides need to jointly support Russia and Ukraine in having dialogue and negotiation that will produce results and lead to peace,” Le said.
“One should not seek its own absolute security,” said Le, the former Chinese Ambassador to India and widely tipped to succeed the present Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in this year’s leadership reshuffle.
“Since NATO made a promise back then, it should not renege on its word and keep pushing its boundary eastward. The pursuit of absolute security actually leads to absolute insecurity,” he said.
“Going against the trend to pursue the Indo-Pacific strategy, provoke trouble, put together closed and exclusive small circles or groups, and get the region off course toward fragmentation and bloc-based division is as dangerous as the NATO strategy of eastward expansion in Europe,” Le said.
“If allowed to go on unchecked, it would bring unimaginable consequences, and ultimately push the Asia-Pacific over the edge of an abyss,” he said.
“We in Asia must keep the future firmly in our own hands, pursue independent, balanced and prudent foreign policies, and seek strength through unity in the process of Asia-Pacific regional integration,” Le said, according to the excerpts of his address posted on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
As the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy gained traction, China has stepped up its attacks especially on the formation of Quad comprising the US, India, Japan, Australia, saying the grouping is akin to Asian NATO.
Early this month, Wang Yi in his annual press conference said Washington is seeking to create an Asian NATO to “suppress” Beijing.
“The real goal for the Indo-Pacific strategy is to establish an Indo-Pacific version of NATO,” Wang said.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had dismissed the notion that the Quad is an Asian NATO and said that there are “interested parties” who advance such analogies and one should not slip into it.
“Quad is a grouping of four countries who have common interests, common values, a great deal of comfort, who happen to be located at four corners of the Indo-Pacific, who found out that in this world no country, not even the US, has the ability to address global challenges all on their own,” Jaishankar told a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2022 at Munich last month.
“I would urge you not to slip into that lazy analogy of an Asian-NATO. It isn’t because there are three countries who are treaty allies. We are not a treaty ally. It doesn’t have a treaty, a structure, a secretariat, it’s a kind of 21st century way of responding to a more diversified, dispersed world,” he said on the Quad grouping.
In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, amidst China’s growing military presence in the region.
Meanwhile, Wang Yi said on Saturday that time will prove that China stands on the right side of history on Ukraine issue as Beijing’s position is objective and fair.
Briefing journalists on the exchange of views between the heads of China and the United States on the Ukraine issue during a video call that took place on March 18, he said China has clearly and comprehensively expounded its position.
He said that during the recent video call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden, China had proposed a Chinese solution to the Ukraine crisis, which mainly includes all sides must push for dialogue between the immediate parties and cessation of hostilities as soon as possible.
