There will be consequences for China if it decides to provide substantial military or financial support to the Russians that allow them to escape sanctions, a top American diplomat warned on Sunday. In a call with China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday, US President Joe Biden “detailed the implications and consequences” if Beijing were to provide “material support to Russia” in its attacks against Ukraine, the White House has said.
Biden spoke at length with China's leader to dissuade Beijing from providing aid to Moscow.
US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told CNN in an interview that Biden was clear about his discussion with Xi, in which he made “our position very well-known that there will be consequences if China decides to provide substantial military or financial support to the Russians that allow them to avoid the sanctions.”
“The conversation was two hours long, but it was extraordinarily frank, it was detailed and substantive. And we made our position clear to the Chinese,” she said.
“They're in an uncomfortable position. They have been put in a position of defending Russia against our principles of sovereignty and integrity of borders. So, they have to decide where they will go from this point, and not sit on the fence, and call out the Russian aggression for what it is, and not put themselves in the positionof defending what is indefensible,” Thomas-Greenfield said about Beijing.