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QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you very much. Tom Bateman from the BBC. Mr. Secretary, President Putin has announced he’s going to visit China this week. We were with you three weeks ago in Beijing, where you warned of consequences if China didn’t stop its exports to Russia of tools and parts that make weapons used here in Ukraine. Have you been able to tell your Ukrainian counterpart that you are now imposing those consequences, or have the Chinese listened to your warning?
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SECRETARY BLINKEN: Tom, thank you. First, with regard to China – and you’ve heard – you heard me talk about this at some length when I was in Beijing and since then, as well as other colleagues in the government – the concern that we have is this. It’s not about China providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. North Korea is doing that; Iran’s doing that; others may be. China’s held back from that. But what we are deeply concerned about is the support that China’s providing to Russia to rebuild its defense industrial base in ways that are materially contributing to and making a difference in its aggression against Ukraine.
As I said when we were in Beijing, we see that the overwhelming majority of machine tools that Russia is getting from abroad are coming from China. The overwhelming majority of microelectronics that Russia is getting from abroad are coming from China. And these are going directly to strengthening that defense industrial base that, over the last year, has been able as a result to churn out more tanks, more armored vehicles, more missiles – all used in the aggression against Ukraine.
So what I shared with Chinese counterparts and I’ve said here as well is that not only are we looking and watching this very carefully, but as necessary, we have and we will continue to take action, including sanctioning entities involved, companies involved. We’ve already levied something like more than 100 sanctions against enterprises that are involved in this kind of support. And as necessary, we’re going to continue to do that.
Now, the other thing that’s important about this, as I said then – and I think you’re seeing this play out, too – is that to the extent China is looking to have stronger relations with countries in Europe, it can’t on the one hand seek to do that while on the other hand remain responsible for fueling the biggest threat to Europe’s security since the end of the Cold War. Because the threat posed by Russia is both the immediate threat here in Ukraine as a result of the aggression, but also as it works to try to get around sanctions, export controls, et cetera in rebuilding its defense industrial base, an ongoing and potentially growing threat to many other countries in Europe. So this is of acute importance to many Europeans that I’ve talked to, and I imagine that they’re making that known to Beijing as well.
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Source: U.S. Department of State
Speaker: Antony J. Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
Format: Press Conference
China Policy Research 