China tries to “play it both ways”, says Washington
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met on Saturday at an undisclosed location on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference and had a “frank” discussion, U.S. officials said.
The meeting, confirmed only after it was held by the US State Department, lasted about an hour and was an opportunity for Antony Blinken to warn Beijing about the war in Ukraine in particular.
China is trying to “play it both ways” claiming to want to contribute to peace and stability while taking measures “disturbing” to support the invasion of Ukraine, a senior State Department official told a press conference
“The Secretary of State did not hesitate to warn of the implications and consequences of China providing material support to Russia or assisting Russia in systematically circumventing sanctions. »
In an interview with NBC, Antony Blinken said that Washington has information that Beijing may provide lethal war aid to Russia.
During a debate in Munich, Wang Yi had previously reiterated his call for dialogue and invited European countries to “think calmly” how to end the war. He also said there was “some forces which apparently do not want the negotiations to succeed or the war to end quickly”without specifying who he was referring to.
The interview between Antony Blinken and Wang Yi took place a few hours after the latter accused the United States of violating international rules by adopting behavior “hysterical”, referring in particular to the destruction of a Chinese balloon in the North American sky.