Newsman: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Washington is not in a position to put demands on China, adding that Beijing does not accept US administration ‘finger-pointing’, during a briefing in Beijing on Monday, following claims that China might be on brink of supplying weapons to Russia, “The United States is not qualified to issue orders to China. We do not accept the United States’ finger-pointing on China-Russia relations, let alone coercion and pressure. The principal that China follows on the Ukraine issues can be simply put as promoting peace talks. Who is working for peace and who is inflaming the flames and instigating confrontation,” Wang said.
Remarks came after the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over the alleged Chinese consideration of sending lethal aid to Russia during the war in Ukraine.
China also accused the Biden administration on Monday of spreading lies and defended its close partnership with Russia.
The remarks, by a spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were part of a series of moves by China as the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, tries to keep Russia close — but also repair ties with Western powers. He has sought to preserve relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while casting Beijing as a blameless onlooker in his invasion of Ukraine, trying only to coax Moscow and Kyiv into peace talks.
“For China, Russia is a potential ally for its confrontation with the United States, and Xi Jinping will cash his check if there is a conflict between China and the U.S.,” Mr. Korolev said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think Beijing is happy about what Russia is doing, but it cannot afford to lose its only great power strategic partner.”
Even so, if China were to send weapons or any other form of “lethal support” to Russia for the war, that would likely deeply alarm Washington as well as European leaders, jeopardizing Mr. Xi’s efforts to rebuild his country’s connections with the world after three years of pandemic-induced isolation. Since late last year, he has been trying to draw closer to Germany, France and other European countries. He attempted to cool tensions with Washington, until a quarrel this month over a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down over the United States put that effort on hold.
“We will reiterate the propositions made by President Xi Jinping,” Mr. Wang told the audience in Munich. “We will also reiterate that nuclear wars must not be fought and will not be won.”
Mr. Wang was asked about reports that Wang Yi was due to arrive in Moscow after meeting with Mr. Blinken at the Munich Security Conference, Mr. Putin may meet with him in Moscow, according to Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman.
