US President Joe Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping about the consequences of Beijing's possible material support for Russia in the war with Ukraine. This is stated in a White House statement published on Friday, March 18, following an almost two-hour telephone conversation between the two leaders on the situation around Ukraine.
According to the report, during the conversation, Biden "described the effect and consequences of what would happen if China provided material support to Russia, carrying out brutal attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians." The US President stressed that he supports "a diplomatic settlement of the crisis."
Although the White House did not elaborate on exactly what those consequences might be or what the US meant by "material support," White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated that China's massive trade flows could be affected. "Sanctions are definitely one of the tools in the arsenal," Psaki said at a regular briefing, when asked if the US would allow trade tariffs or sanctions against China.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi Jinping, in a conversation with Biden, pointed out the need to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible and called on NATO countries to engage in dialogue with Moscow. At the same time, according to Beijing, the Chinese leader did not blame Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. "The main priorities now are to continue dialogue and negotiations, avoid civilian casualties, prevent a humanitarian crisis, end hostilities and end the war as soon as possible," Xi said.
The Chinese President expressed confidence that "the United States and NATO should also promote dialogue with Russia, address the security concerns of the Russian Federation and Ukraine and the real cause of the Ukrainian crisis." "We don't want to see anything like a Ukrainian crisis," Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by Chinese state media. According to him, the US and China should recognize their international responsibility and make efforts to achieve world peace.
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