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发帖数: 629 | 1 Russian officials have raised increasingly frustrated requests for greater
support during discussions with Beijing in recent weeks, calling on China to
live up to its affirmation of a “no limits” partnership made weeks before
the war in Ukraine began. But China’s leadership wants to expand
assistance for Russia without running afoul of Western sanctions and has set
limits on what it will do, according to Chinese and U.S. officials.
Chinese President Xi Jinping with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Mark
Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)© MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images Chinese
President Xi Jinping with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Mark Ralston/
AFP/Getty Images)
Moscow has on at least two occasions pressed Beijing to offer new forms of
economic support — exchanges that one Chinese official described as “tense
.” The officials familiar with the talks spoke on the condition of
anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
They declined to share specifics of Russia’s requests, but one official
said it included maintaining “trade commitments” predating the Feb. 24
invasion of Ukraine, and financial and technological support now sanctioned
by the United States and other countries.
“China has made clear its position on the situation in Ukraine, and on the
illegal sanctions against Russia,” said a person in Beijing with direct
knowledge of the discussions. “We understand [Moscow’s] predicament. But
we cannot ignore our own situation in this dialogue. China will always act
in the best interest of the Chinese people.”
China is in a bind as it seeks to help its most important strategic partner,
which started a war that Beijing did not anticipate would now be entering
its fourth month, Chinese and U.S. officials said. They said that President
Xi Jinping has tasked his closest advisers to come up with ways to help
Russia financially but without violating sanctions.
“That has been difficult,” said a senior U.S. official. “And it is
insufficient from the Russian standpoint.”
The U.S. official said that China has tried to find “other opportunities”
diplomatically, and through joint military exercises, to bolster Russia.
Last week, Russia and China flew strategic bombers over the Sea of Japan and
East China Sea while President Biden was in Tokyo, wrapping up his first
trip to Asia. It was their first joint military exercise since the invasion
of Ukraine and a pointed signal of the growing strategic partnership between
Moscow and Beijing.
“What China is trying to do is to be with Russia, signal neutrality
publicly and not be compromised financially,” the U.S. official said. “
Many of those goals are contradictory. It’s hard to fulfill them at the
same time.”
The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
China has called for an end to the war but has refused to join a global
consortium of countries in imposing sanctions on Moscow, instead laying
blame for the conflict on the United States and NATO expansion in Europe.
“For a long time, China and Russia have maintained normal cooperation in
the fields of economy, trade and energy. The problem is not who will help
Russia bypass the sanctions, but that normal economic and trade exchanges
between Russia and China have been unnecessarily damaged,” said Liu Pengyu,
spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington.
Liu added that the sanctions brought about a “lose-lose” situation for all
parties and made “the already difficult world economy worse.”
Beijing’s public support for Russia has not faltered. China’s foreign
minister, Wang Yi, on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to Moscow during a
virtual meeting that was also attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei
Lavrov. Wang said China is willing to work with Russia to promote “real
democracy,” alluding to a Chinese foreign policy goal of countering what it
has described as U.S. hegemony in global politics.
Russia has not requested “weapons and ammunition” to support its war, the
Chinese officials said, but declined to comment on whether Russia had
requested other items that could be used in military operations including
technology and supplies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States has
not seen any “systematic effort” by China to help Russia evade sanctions,
nor has it seen any significant military support from China to Russia.
Biden warns China's Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
Blinken, speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event commemorating the
centennial of Foreign Affairs magazine, noted a “remarkable exodus of
companies from Russia” as a result of the invasion — 7,800 companies,
Blinken said, that “didn’t want their reputations to be at risk by doing
business in Russia.”
The sanctions themselves did not drive the exodus, Blinken said. “It was
really companies deciding on their own that they were not going to do
business as usual in a country that was committing this kind of aggression.
That’s something I think that China also has to factor in as it thinks
about its relationship with Russia.”
China has balked at helping Russia evade sanctions, fearing the United
States and it allies could cut China off from critical technology, including
semiconductors and aerospace equipment, as well as target its financial
system, a Beijing official said. Shipments of high-end Chinese technology to
Russia — including smartphones, laptops and telecommunications equipment
— have plummeted since the war began.
Nonetheless, the Chinese maintain that the U.S. and Western sanctions are
illegal and that China will continue to do business with Russia. “The
Chinese side is willing to fulfill its commitments to the Russian side, and
is doing that when suitable conditions are met,” said the person in Beijing
familiar with the discussions.
Asked about U.S. warnings that China would face consequences if it aids
Russia, the person said, “The true reason is to sow discord between the
Chinese side and the Russian side … that will not happen. They will not
succeed in undermining the China-Russian relationship.”
The Chinese official noted, however, that the war in Ukraine had dragged on
much longer than expected, and Beijing has made clear to Moscow that an end
to the conflict would allow China more leeway to oppose sanctions and grow
business ties inside Russia in the wake of the exodus of foreign firms.
Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of
the United States, said, “I think that the hope of the United States and
Europe is that China will be forced to choose [between siding with Russia or
with the West] and that it will make the right choice. But China has
competing interests, and it will be virtually impossible to compel them to
place their long-standing support for territorial integrity and sovereignty
above their relationship with Russia.”
Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center, said “
The whole purpose of standing with Russia is they want Russia to work with
them in strategic alignment against the U.S.” But by abiding by Western
sanctions, after all the public support it has given Russia, Beijing runs
the risk of undermining its relationship with Moscow.
A second Chinese official said that discussions among high-level officials
have emphasized fast-tracking Russian ventures inside China to cement closer
ties while minimizing the risk to Beijing. And open source documents show
that Russian-linked projects inside China are forging ahead.
Domestic Chinese bidding documents show that financing for new construction
on the strategically significant Russia-China Eastern Route gas pipeline has
continued since the war began, with fresh purchases for materials and
machinery earmarked for the southern leg of the project. It is expected to
provide 18.9 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China’s economically
vibrant Yangtze Delta region by 2025.
China’s Institute of Atomic Energy in April also purchased new services and
equipment from Russian nuclear engineering firm OKBM Afrikantov for the
Russian-built China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) nuclear project near
Beijing, documents show. In the same period, it purchased new supplies and
services from Russian state atomic energy firm Rosatom for the Tianwan
Nuclear Power Plant, a landmark Sino-Russian project under construction in
China’s Jiangsu province.
Municipal and provincial governments have also been directed by Beijing to
launch projects to expand trade and financial ties with Russia, according to
the Beijing officials and domestic bidding documents filed in China.
“Based on the comparative advantages of location and resources, we will
analyze the favorable factors and obstacles of regional cooperation between
Dalian and the Russian Far East … so as to promote the high-quality
economic development,” stated one May 19 document outlining funding for
research into investment opportunities in Russia for the northeastern
Chinese manufacturing and port hub of Dalian, which is located close to the
Russian border.
Chinese officials also said senior leadership had called for new investment
and trade with Belarus, which has been targeted with financial and defense
sanctions linked to its supporting role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bidding documents and contracts issued in April and May show Chinese
companies continued to make shipments to the China-Belarus Industrial Park,
a logistic hub outside Minsk, Belarus, that was created as part of strategic
agreement between the two countries. Over half of the companies in the park
are financed by China, according to data released in Chinese state media in
May.
Further bidding documents released on May 20 outline plans by a subsidiary
of state-owned technology giant China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) to
launch a $30 million project for a China-Belarus joint research laboratory
that will study and test of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) equipment — a
technology with military applications. The project includes an 11,000-square
-foot research base and an array of EMP equipment.
CETC and its subsidiaries have already been placed on the U.S. Commerce
Department’s Entity List, which restricts exports to listed companies, for
their cooperation with the Chinese military. | l******t
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