Beijing called recent U.S. sanctions on its companies over the Ukraine war “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts,” as White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in China for several days of high-level talks.
Here’s what’s going on.
Finding Perspective: Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia's defense industrial base and has already issued hundreds of sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow's ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes.
The United States imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia's war effort in Ukraine on August 23, including Chinese firms that U.S. officials believe are helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military.
One hundred and twenty-three entities were also added to the U.S. export control list known as the Entity List, which forces suppliers to obtain licenses before shipping to targeted companies. Among those added in this most recent batch, 63 entities were based in Russia and 42 in China.
On August 27, ahead of Sullivan’s arrival that same day, Li Hui, China's special envoy for Eurasian affairs, who has done four rounds of shuttle diplomacy, criticized the sanctions at a briefing for diplomats in Beijing after the latest round of meetings with officials from Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa.
China has been striving to present itself as a party that is actively looking for a solution to the war in Ukraine, despite skipping a key peace conference in Switzerland this June.
After past rounds of talks led by Li in the spring, Beijing put forward proposals on supporting the exchange of prisoners of war, opposing the use of nuclear and biological weapons, and opposing armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities, as well as an outline for principles to end the war in February 2023.
Sullivan In China: Sullivan's trip comes at a time of high tensions in the U.S.-China relationship, with issues like Taiwan, the war in Ukraine, and tensions in the South China Sea flaring up.
The trip is Sullivan’s fifth meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also the director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office. As the Financial Times recently reported, both officials have been engaged in secret backchannel talks since 2023 following a low point in ties after an incident with a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States.
The two officials are expected to discuss a litany of issues in Beijing, including tensions in the South China Sea, China’s growing cooperation with Russia, and conflict in the Middle East.
Why It Matters: Talks between Washington and Beijing are never easy and both sides have lots to talk about, but Russia and the war in Ukraine are high on the agenda.
When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in April, he warned that Washington would act if China did not stop supplying Russia with microchips and machine parts to build weapons used in Ukraine.
He also accused his Chinese counterparts of “helping to fuel the biggest threat” to European security since the Cold War.
Since then, Chinese companies have been hit with a raft of measures and the threat of further secondary sanctions on other Chinese entities have led to Chinese banks tightening their restrictions on payments from Russia.
Both Sullivan and Wang are hoping to set up a framework for stable relations between their two governments despite their laundry list of issues.
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During comments about U.S.-China relations in January at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Sullivan said that he and Wang continued to have “direct” conversations on leading issues, including Ukraine and Russia.
“"Both of us left feeling that we didn’t agree or see eye-to-eye on everything but that there was a lot of work to carry forward,” Sullivan said.
By RFE/RL
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The irony is that the United States has the temerity to object to Chinese firms believed to be supporting Russia's war effort when it was the one who sparked the Ukraine conflict and has been along with the EU providing hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons and financial aid to Ukraine.
The United States can't abide the fact that China's economy is 22% bigger than its economy and that the Chinese-Russian strategic alliance is going from strength to strength and is ushering in a new multipolar World Order and a new global financial system away from the dollar supported by the BRICS.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Global Energy Expert