U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China’s top diplomat against providing lethal aid to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rebuked him over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that heightened tensions between the world’s largest economies.
Blinken told Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi in Munich on Saturday evening that the U.S. had information China was considering whether to give Russia assistance, possibly including guns and weapons, for the Ukraine war. The U.S. has warned China since the start of the invasion a year ago not to do so.
“The concern that we have now is, based on information we have, that they’re considering providing lethal support,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” shortly after he met with Wang. “And we’ve made very clear to them that that could cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship.”
In their first in-person talks since the uproar over the balloon, Blinken told Wang that the craft’s entry into U.S. airspace was an “irresponsible act that must never again occur” and warned China against helping Russia evade sanctions linked to the invasion of Ukraine, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Blinken’s remarks — and comments by Wang earlier in the day sharply criticizing the U.S. over the balloon, Taiwan and recently introduced export controls — highlighted just how strained relations remain. Despite statements from both nations’ leaders that they want to stabilize the relationship, the disagreements made clear the U.S. and China are nowhere near restoring normalcy to the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.
Saturday’s meeting took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Wang lashed out at the U.S. beforehand, calling President Joe Biden’s decision to shoot down the balloon over American airspace and the heightened state of alert “incomprehensible and almost hysterical.”
The airship, which China said was a weather device blown off course, led Blinken to cancel a planned trip to Beijing. An F-22 fighter shot the balloon down off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4. Since the balloon was identified and shot down, the U.S. and China have traded accusations over global espionage efforts.
The U.S. said the balloon over the U.S. was part of a fleet of spy devices directed by China’s People’s Liberation Army. China countered that the U.S. was overreacting and had flown similar airships over China — claims the White House has rejected.
“The Secretary made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the PRC’s high altitude surveillance balloon program — which has intruded into the air space of over 40 countries across 5 continents — has been exposed to the world,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, referring to China by its formal name, the People’s Republic of China.
The U.S. is consulting with allies and partners at the Munich conference and elsewhere, including sharing its concern that China may be giving more tangible support to Russia’s military than before, according to a person familiar with the administration’s thinking.
Earlier at the conference, Wang said China would release a new peace proposal for Ukraine in the coming days that would be in keeping with previous efforts by President Xi Jinping. He condemned attacks on nuclear power stations.
“We oppose attacks on nuclear power stations, attacks on civilian nuclear facilities,” Wang said. “We have to work to prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear disasters.”
The initial response was cautious. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed China’s idea but said “a just peace cannot mean that the aggressor gets rewarded.” As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, “China is obliged to use its influence for global peace,” Baerbock said. A Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine is a condition of any peace deal, she said.
Asked about Wang’s peace proposal, a U.S. official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said that Beijing appears to be trying to publicly promote peace and stability while covertly supporting Russia’s aggression against its neighbor.
State Department officials continue to say that Blinken’s trip to China will be rescheduled when conditions are right, but haven’t identified those conditions or potential timing.
The acrimony around the spy balloon — fueled in part by Republican criticism of the Biden administration — has pushed off any possibility to put ties on a more stable footing. Biden and Xi met late last year seeking to put a “floor” under the relationship and stop tensions from spiraling out of control.
While China initially expressed regret over what it said was the balloon’s accidental diversion over U.S. territory, it has denied that the craft was intended for surveillance and denounced the decision to shoot it down as an overreaction.
On Thursday, Biden said he expected to have a call with Xi, without giving details.
“We’re also continuing to engage with China as we have throughout the past two weeks,” Biden said in a briefing.
“As I’ve said since the beginning of my administration, we seek competition, not conflict, with China,” Biden said. “We’re not looking for a new Cold War, but I make no apologies, and we will compete.”
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