The United States continues to try to get China to stop plans to supply weapons material to Russia to assist the invasion of Ukraine.
Senior officials in the US also believe that China is taking this into account, because so far there has been no information regarding the implementation of the delivery of aid to Russia.
“We believe that the Chinese leadership is considering providing lethal equipment to Russia,” US Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns told CBS on Sunday (27/2) as quoted by AFP.
However, Burns added, “Nor have we seen that a final decision has been made, and we have seen no evidence of actual shipment of lethal equipment.”
US officials have launched extensive diplomatic pressure over the past week to encourage China not to provide such lethal aid to Russia. Meanwhile, China has so far steadfastly denied the allegations.
The same day, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there would be serious consequences if China sent weapons to Russia for a war in Ukraine.
He said that the decision to help Moscow, including providing military aid, was in Beijing's hands.
“…but if that's the case, there will be consequences for China,” Sullivan said,
In a separate interview with ABC ‘s This Week programme , he said China had not yet sent the aid, but had not ruled out the option either.
Sullivan said US officials had warned Chinese officials in closed forums about the repercussions of sending weapons to Russia. However, he did not elaborate further on the private talks.
Previously, the US and its allies in the NATO defense pact had been busy warning China about this in recent days.
They issued a public statement of their belief that China was considering providing Russia with lethal equipment.
Republican US Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the ABC program This Week that intelligence detected plans for drones to be among the lethal weapons China is considering sending to Russia.
On the one hand, US President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv last Monday and promised the country new aid worth 500 million dollars (around IDR 7.6 trillion).
Last week marked the first year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in what Moscow called a “special military operation”.
