Blinken lands in China warning over Beijing’s support for Russia
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Semafor Signals
Insights from Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post
The News
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Shanghai Wednesday, as mounting tensions over China’s support for Russia’s war campaign threaten to reverse the recent thaw in US-China relations.
Blinken is expected to use the three-day visit to warn China against providing further support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Biden administration officials reportedly floating sanctions on Chinese companies involved or cutting Chinese banks off from the global financial system.
Chinese officials have shown little sign that they are willing to pause their exports of crucial dual-use goods such as military components to Russia. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the US of “fanning the flames while deflecting the blame on China,” and stressed that the US should not seek to disrupt China’s trade with Russia.
Blinken, who will meet with his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday, is also expected to press officials on a glut of Chinese technology exports that US officials fear may cost American jobs, as well as China’s maneuvers in the South China Sea, The New York Times reported.
SIGNALS
US presses China on support for Russia even as trade remains limited
Sources: The Telegraph, Financial Times
US officials have repeatedly sounded the alarm over China’s support for Russia, saying that China has provided technology such as machine tools, microelectronics, cruise missile engines, and tank parts that are critical to Russia’s ability to wage its war in Ukraine. Even so, Agathe Demarais, an economist at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote that financial ties between the two countries are often over-hyped, even if they are growing. Chinese financial institutions remain hesitant to do business with Russian companies due to the consequences of violating US sanctions, Demarais argued. “With Washington now beefing up enforcement of these measures, such fears could become even more acute in the coming months,” she said.
Upcoming election may complicate US-China relations
Sources: The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, China-US Focus
US-China relations have warmed since President Joe Biden met Xi Jinping in California last year, and Blinken’s planned stop in Shanghai to speak to students and see a basketball game “would have been unthinkable a year ago,” The Guardian reported. However, relations already strained over Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war look set to deteriorate further as the US election approaches. Anti-China rhetoric is likely to ramp up over the coming months, as Republicans and Democrats compete to outdo each other on being tough on China, The New York Times reported. One Chinese expert in US politics at a think tank affiliated with China’s intelligence services wrote that “there’s a high probability that, driven by the election, anti-China elements may push Congress to introduce radical bills on various issues.”
