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QUESTION: China? Okay. With the Secretary going to China later this week, obviously we know that the Middle East will be something that’s discussed. I wonder if you could just give us a sort of analysis, status update, in terms of what this building thinks on how effective China has been in trying to drum down tensions, pushing Iran to de-escalate things in the region. Do you think they have done that effectively? Do you want to see them do more? Can you just bring us up to speed on that?

MR MILLER: So this has been something that has been the focus of the State Department since the immediate days after October 7th. It was I think five or six days after October 7th that the Secretary, while we were in the region, called the foreign minister of China – Wang Yi – and made clear to him that we believe it is in China’s interest to prevent the conflict from escalating and prevent the conflict from spreading. And you’ve seen him have subsequent conversations with China about that when the Houthis began launching attacks on ships. The Secretary had a conversation with Wang Yi about this the week before last when it was clear that there was the potential for escalation in the region.

So I will let China speak to any actions that it has taken. I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to do so. But we will continue to press the case to China that it’s not just in the interests of the region, it’s not just in the interests of the United States, it’s not just in the interests of the individual countries that are involved, but it’s in the interests of China and the broader world that there not be a further widening of the conflict. And because of that, it is in China’s interest to use the relationships and whatever influence it has with any country in the region to press that message.

QUESTION: And then one more question about the China trip. A senior administration official said on Friday that another thing that the Secretary will be discussing would be China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base. That’s also something that came up. It was happening at a smaller scale, but it also came up last year when the Secretary was there in July. And I just wonder: what makes this building think that China would be more apt to listen now if all they’ve done is expand how much support they have given to Russia’s defense industrial base in the last nine months or so?

MR MILLER: So a few things with respect to that. Number one, it is not just the United States that has this concern. And if you’ve seen the conversations the Secretary has had over the past several weeks, first he traveled to Brussels and met with NATO foreign ministers, where he talked about what we have seen industry in China doing with rebuilding the – Russia’s defense industrial base and allowing themselves to rearm and re-equip on the battlefield and use that expanded industrial base to kill Ukrainians. And then last week at a meeting with G7 foreign ministers, where he made the same points and briefed them quite extensively on what we have found – more extensively than we have made public about what we have seen and what we have found and what we have seen Chinese companies doing.

And what he heard in both of those meetings is that the concern is not just the United States, that the concern is shared by our allies and partners, and that there is a consensus belief that China cannot on one hand say it’s committed to European security and on the other hand continue to fuel the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War. So that is the first point, that it is not just the United States making this point to China, that I believe allies and partners of the United States are – will be making this point as well to China, and some probably already have made this point to China.

And then the second thing is that we will be there to have very direct, very clear conversations with them about these concerns and lay them out in detail. And I will say in the previous trip it was a different situation where we had seen – we had not seen China transferring direct arms to Russia, which is something you may recall from the outset of this conflict we were very worried about, and we saw China say that they wouldn’t do it, and we have not assessed that they have transferred direct arms.

But at the same time we made clear to them that we would be watching what Chinese private companies did, and we wanted China to take action to stop the transfer of goods that could be used for Russia’s industrial base and that we were prepared to take our own action – we have taken our own action; we’ve imposed more than a hundred sanctions and export controls targeting Chinese companies that have provided such equipment to Russia, and we of course won’t hesitate to do more if appropriate. So we will go ahead and deliver these messages not just about what we did last year but how the changing environment – the changing environment we have seen and the views of our allies and partners as well.

And with that, I’ll apologize, because I recognize that was an extremely long-winded answer.

QUESTION: Thank you. I wanted to follow up specifically on that point because, I mean, it also comes on the heels of President Biden raising this directly with President Xi in a phone call, right? So I mean, has any of that diplomatic pressure already shown signs that it will move the needle? And if not, are there measures that the U.S. is willing to consider in order to moderate China’s behavior on this front specifically?

MR MILLER: We do think that there is more that China can do, and we have always made clear that we are willing and able to take our own actions if appropriate, and I think I’ll leave it at that for now.

QUESTION: Follow-up on China?

QUESTION: India?

QUESTION: On China?

MR MILLER: Janne, go ahead, and then we’re going to wrap in a few. Sorry not to get to everybody’s, but we’ve been out for an hour now.

QUESTION: Yeah, two questions. North Korea launched a large number of cruise and ballistic missiles last weekend, and North Korea declared that all missiles can be equipped with nuclear weapons. As you know, China and Russia continue to ignore North Korea’s missile provocations. How will the U.S. resolve on this?

MR MILLER: So – sorry, were you —

QUESTION: Go ahead.

MR MILLER: Yeah, so first of all, we do condemn the DPRK’s recent ballistic missile launch. This launch, like all of its other ballistic missile launches in recent years, is in violation of multiple United States – or sorry, United Nations Security Council resolutions. They pose a threat to regional and international peace and security, and this obviously will be something that will be on the agenda when the Secretary travels to Beijing.

…

QUESTION: I have two questions on China. First of all, will Secretary Blinken follow up the conversation between President Biden and President Xi on TikTok, and how will he proceed this topic since China – Chinese Government already said they oppose the – any divestment?

MR MILLER: I don’t want to get into the – to topics that will be brought up in these conversations other than to say, broadly, we are going to talk about progress on areas where the two presidents – President Biden and President Xi – agreed to work together at their summit last year: on artificial intelligence, on people-to-people exchanges, on counter-narcotics trafficking. We will be raising areas where we have concern. We’ll be talking about a number of international issues – spoke already to the Middle East and, of course, to the war in Russia. And we will be – the Secretary will be looking, as he did in his last trip last June, to make clear that it is important that the United States and China manage differences between the two countries to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. But I don’t want to preview a specific conversation.

QUESTION: Except this week, the Senate will vote for two bills related to China. One is the aid to Taiwan; the second one is on TikTok. Do you feel these bills may give Secretary Blinken more leverage when he goes to China to start his negotiation?

MR MILLER: No, I don’t see them as connected.

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Source: U.S. Department of State

Speaker: Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson

Format: Press Briefing

Link to Original Source