China’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Beijing is “deeply worried” that the war in Ukraine could continue to escalate and “spiral out of control,” as the conflict continues to rage on nearly one year later.
Foreign Minister Qin Gang appeared to call out the U.S. for its extensive support of Ukraine, urging “the countries concerned to immediately stop adding fuel to the fire, stop blaming China, and stop clamoring for ‘Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.’”
Qin added that Beijing will “continue to promote peace talks” and “provide Chinese wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.”
While China has sought to appear neutral in the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Beijing on Saturday of “strongly considering” providing Russia with “lethal assistance.”
“China is trying to have it both ways,” Blinken said in an interview aired on Sunday. “Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of non-lethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also warned on Sunday that there would be “consequences” if China were to make the “unfortunate decision” to send lethal assistance to the Russians.
However, China hit back at the accusations on Monday, noting that “it is the U.S., not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield.”
“The U.S. is in no position to tell China what to do,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday. “We would never stand for finger-pointing, or even coercion and pressurizing from the U.S. on our relations with Russia.”