China’s government was aware of Vladimir Putin’s plan to attack Ukraine to some extend, President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claimed on Sunday.
He also threatened Beijing with ‘severe consequences’ if Chinese President Xi Jinping attempts to side-step the West’s vast economic blockade against Russia brought over its autocratic leader’s unprovoked invasion of a neighboring country.
The stunning accusation was levied just one day before Sullivan is set to meet with Chinese officials in Rome to discuss the attack on Ukraine as well as economic ‘competition’ between the two global superpowers.
‘We believe that China was in fact was aware before the invasion took place that Putin was planning something,’ Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union.
He added that Beijing ‘may not have understood the full extent of it, because it’s very possible that Putin lied to them the same way that he lied to Europeans and other.’
Sullivan warned that the United States was ‘watching closely’ to see if China ‘actually does provide any form of support, material support or economic support to Russia.’
‘It is a concern of ours and we have communicated to Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses,’ he said.
‘We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill that.’
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned of ‘severe consequences’ for any country that evades the West’s sanctions against Russia
Such actions by any nation would be negatively received by the US, the foreign policy expert added.
‘We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,’ Sullivan vowed.
He indicated that such talks would be part of his Monday meeting with Chinese officials.
‘In terms of the specific means of doing that, again, I’m not going to lay all of that out in public, but we will communicate that privately to China, as we have already done and will continue to do,’ Sullivan said during a separate interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday.
The National Security Council said soon after Sullivan’s interview that he and other US officials would be headed to Rome ‘as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).’
He’ll be meeting with the Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi.
‘The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,’ NSC spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement.
Russia said that it was counting on China to help it withstand the blow to its economy from Western sanctions, which it said had frozen nearly half of its gold and foreign currency reserves, Reuters reported on Sunday.
However on Thursday an official at Moscow’s aviation authority said that Xi’s officials refused a request to sell parts to Russian airlines as that sector of their economy is also squeezed by sanctions.
Putin’s officials have on Sunday reportedly asked Xi to help Russia withstand the blow of the West’s sanctions
Late last week CIA Director William Burns testified at a Senate hearing that Xi was ‘unsettled’ by Putin’s invasion.
Western intelligence reports had indicated that Beijing beseeched Moscow to delay a potential invasion until after this year’s Winter Olympics.
Sullivan previously foreshadowed China’s embroilment in Putin’s illegal and devastating war before it even broke out. Moscow’s troops continue to bombard Ukraine’s cities for more than two weeks. Kyiv officials have said more civilians have been killed in the conflict so far than its soldiers.
‘We believe that Beijing will end up owning some of the costs of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and that they should calculate that as they consider their engagements with the Russian government,’ the top national security official said in a February 6 interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
The Chinese abstained on United Nations votes censuring Russia and has criticized the economic sanctions against Moscow. It has expressed its support for peace talks and offered its services as a mediator, despite questions about its neutrality and scant experience mediating international conflict.
The Asian superpower also recently helped fuel Russia’s accusations that the US is building and running biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
The CIA director told US senators at a hearing last week that Xi was ‘unsettled’ by Putin’s savage attack (pictured: Evacuees walk on a makshift pathway to cross a river next to a destroyed bridge as they flee the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 13)
Moscow’s troops have been bombarding Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike for more than two weeks, since Putin ordered the invasion on February 24
Humanitarian corridors had been opened repeatedly to allow civilians to escape the bloodshed, though they were halted each time when Russian troops broke the ceasefire
United Nations authorities have not seen evidence to support the allegation, which was vehemently refuted by the US. American officials have warned that rather than being genuine, the claims were likely an alarming pretext for Putin to launch a bioweapon attack on Ukraine.
Chinese officials have said Washington shouldn’t be able to complain about Russia’s actions because the U.S. invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The US claimed to have evidence Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction though none was ever found.
For Russia, China could be a crucial economic partner in mitigating the severe sanctions levied by the US, Britain, the 27-national European Union and other countries, though there are questions how far Beijing will go to alienate the alliance and put its own economy at risk.
The Biden administration is looking to impress on China that any efforts to ease sanctions for Russia could have ramifications for its relations with the United States and Western allies.
Sullivan and Yang last met for face-to-face talks in Switzerland, where Sullivan raised the Biden administration’s concerns about China’s military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
That meeting set the stage for a three-hour long virtual meeting in November between Biden and Xi.
Sullivan is also to meet Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, while in Rome.
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