Do Chinese state-owned companies help Russia in the war? Biden thinks so
Chinese state-owned companies have been providing non-lethal military aid to Russia, according to the United States. Here's what we know and what could happen
The United States has presented China with a series of evidence that it would show that some Chinese state-owned companies have offered Russia material assistance in the war against Ukraine. Now Washington is trying to understand if the Beijing authorities were aware of these contacts.
WHAT WE KNOW
Bloomberg 's sources did not explain in detail what this assistance consists of, limiting themselves to saying that it is non-lethal economic and military support, which does not violate the sanctions imposed against Russia by America and its allies.
But these contacts between Beijing and Moscow would still be worrying for Joe Biden's US administration, to the point of causing it to raise the issue with the Chinese authorities and warn them of the implications linked to material support for the Russian invasion.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has not criticized Russia for the war – indeed, he has relaunched its anti-Western propaganda -, but he has also spoken out in favor of peace and against the use of nuclear weapons, a possibility evoked several times by Vladimir Putin.
ARE CHINESE STATE COMPANIES HELPING RUSSIA?
American officials who spoke to Bloomberg – there have been no official statements from the various government agencies – said they believe that relations between China and Russia are extremely close at the moment, and that Beijing is supporting Moscow much more than it has previously. past.
Sources close to the Biden administration think Chinese state-owned companies are knowingly supporting the Russian war effort. If the evidence collected – it is not known what kind it is, nor how it was obtained – were to actually demonstrate this support, the political relations of the United States with China and Russia could undergo important changes.
THE STATEMENTS OF THE WHITE HOUSE
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that “we will continue to communicate to China the implications of material support for Russia's war against Ukraine […]. And, as I have said time and time again, as my NSC colleagues have said time and time again, we will continue to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people as long as necessary."
The acronym NSC stands for National Security Council, or National Security Council: it is the body that provides assistance to the American president in matters of national security and foreign policy.
CHINA IS HINDERING BIDEN'S ANTI-RUSSIA STRATEGY
The US strategy for Ukraine also includes the international isolation of Russia, in order to weaken the country's economy and make it more difficult for the Kremlin to finance the continuation of the war. However, if China, the second largest economy in the world , were to materially take sides in support of Russia, Washington's plan could lose its effectiveness.
And if the Biden administration were to establish with certainty that the Chinese government is involved in the pro-Russian activities of Chinese state-owned companies, or that it has given its tacit assent, then it would in some sense be forced to answer: by doing so, however, yet another element of friction would arise in the already tense bilateral relations.
In recent weeks there had been signs, if not of pacification, at least of détente, useful for managing the competition between the two superpowers. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He last week, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Beijing next month.
CHINA AND RUSSIA ARE ALREADY CLOSER IN TRADE
Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine began, China and Russia declared a "limitless" partnership. At first, the United States feared that the Chinese would sell the Russians lethal weapons for use in warfare, Bloomberg writes. But then the Biden administration became convinced of Beijing's rethinking, which probably took a step back so as not to be penalized by the sanctions.
Washington, however, still believes that the Chinese government wants to help the Kremlin and that it is not really as neutral as it professes: China and Russia, moreover, deepened their trade relationship a lot last year , despite Western detachment from the country. In 2022, Chinese imports of Russian goods grew by nearly 50 percent year-on-year, while exports by 13 percent.
HOW CHINESE STATE COMPANIES WORK
There are thousands of state-owned companies in China. Some are directly controlled by the central government and have chief executives who are effectively of the same rank as a minister; others, however, are not supervised in the same way. However, all these companies are subject to the influence of the Communist Party, even if their activities are not always monitored in detail
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/aziende-statali-cinesi-supporto-materiale-russia-guerra/ on Thu, 26 Jan 2023 06:39:18 +0000.