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The US has directly accused China of supplying Russia with weapons for the first time has tension between Washington and Beijing ratchet up another notch / bne IntelliNews
Nato directly accuses China of supplying Russia with arms for the first time
threat to European security, thanks to its support of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
So far, Washington has shied away from escalating those tensions by saying Beijing is directly supplying Russia with weapons. For its part, China has also been openly supplying Russia with dual-use goods, but refrained, publicly, from overtly selling Russia military supplies.
Now relations between China and Nato have taken another step down the ladder. The US provided intelligence evidence to Nato countries to overcome scepticism about China's involvement during the Nato summit, in which the US Treasury Department published the names of Chinese front companies and manufacturers funnelling technology to Russia. Hong Kong in particular, has become a major conduit for the flow of technology into Russia.
The Nato declaration also accused China of engaging in “malicious
cyber and hybrid activities, including disinformation” targeting the US and Europe. In response, China has denied being a significant factor in the war and has accused Washington of hypocrisy, highlighting the substantial military aid the US provides to Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the US accusations “hypocritical and highly irresponsible” in May, without denying the specifics of the claims, according to NYT.
As bne IntelliNews reported, technology sanctions have failed to stem the flow of machinery and microchips to Russia, with imports of technology in 2023 totalling only 2% less than pre-war in monetary terms.
The accusation was contained in a declaration approved by the 32 Nato leaders before a dinner at the White House and will take tension up a notch. The declaration warned that China’s growing support for Russia will have “negative repercussions.”
“China cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without
Ben Aris in Berlin
Nato directly accused China of supplying Russia with arms and ammunition for the
war in Ukraine for the first time in a declaration released during the Nato summit in Washington, The New York Times (NYT) reported on July 10.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters it was the first time the 32 allies had jointly labelled China a decisive enabler of Russia’s war and called it an important message.
The tone has taken a sharp turn for
the worse, since the Nato summit that got underway in Washington on July
9 as Nato members for the first time accused Beijing of becoming a "decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine," demanding an immediate halt to shipments of "weapons components" and other critical technology to the Russian military.
“The declaration demonstrates that Nato allies now collectively understand this challenge and are calling on the P.R.C.
to cease this activity,” said Jake Sullivan,
www.bne.eu
Biden’s national security adviser, the NYT reports. “If this P.R.C. support continues, it will degrade its relations across Europe, and the United States will continue to impose sanctions on P.R.C. entities involved in this activity, in coordination with our European allies.”
Specifically, amongst the allegations is evidence that Beijing was developing an attack drone for the conflict with Ukraine, according to US intelligence. The US briefed its Nato allies on China’s support in the run-up to the summit, according to reports. The declaration says that China poses “systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security”, including through cyber activities and disinformation as well as its development of counter-space capabilities. But US officials have said that China is still holding off directly providing weapons and artillery.
Tensions between Beijing and Washington have been growing thanks to China’s increasing aggression in the South China Sea, but the new declarations suggests that the West increasingly sees China as a