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The US has accused China of providing Russia with direct support for its “war machine” for the first time, as part of an intensified campaign to urge Europe to join Washington in ratcheting up pressure on Beijing.
US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell told reporters in Brussels that China was supplying Moscow with items that were directly helping the Russian military as it prosecutes its war of aggression in Ukraine.
Campbell’s comments after a visit to Nato headquarters in the Belgian capital marked a new assessment by US officials of the extent of China’s direct military support for Russia.
The Biden administration has on many occasions criticised Beijing for providing dual-use items to Russia, but has previously said there was no evidence it had provided “lethal aid”.
“These are not dual-use capabilities,” Campbell said on Tuesday. “These are component pieces of a very substantial effort on the part of China to help sustain, build, and diversify various elements of the Russian war machine.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has repeatedly raised concerns with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi about Beijing helping Russia in backchannel meetings that the two officials have had over the past year. But the US is also asking Europe to take more action, including sanctions, to put pressure on China to dial back its support.
Campbell said the Chinese support for Russia was being repaid by Moscow helping Beijing develop submarine, aeronautic and missile technologies in exchange for China’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Russia’s deepening sharing of military knowhow in areas such as stealth and surveillance would have a “negative and concerning impact” on the security of the US and its allies, Campbell said.
“These new areas of collaboration between Russia and China are in the areas of design and . . . application. They are significant,” he said.
The collaboration could have a “very significant impact on Chinese capabilities and deployments in the western Pacific”, he added.
Russia has historically been cautious about co-operating with China on military technology, seeking to protect its intellectual property and fearing the assistance would help develop large and highly capable forces in its neighbouring country.
But Campbell said Russian support, provided in exchange for Chinese supplies of items such as parts used to build Russian weapons, was “orchestrated at the highest levels” in Moscow and Beijing.
The co-operation was “not a tactical alliance, this is a fundamental alignment”, he said.
The Chinese embassy to the EU in Brussels did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Campbell’s statements. Beijing has previously denounced accusations it is supporting Russia’s war effort as “biased, slanderous, and provocative”, insisting it has taken a “constructive role” on the war in Ukraine and has not provided lethal weapons to either side.
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said Moscow had become more willing to collaborate with Beijing on military technology after its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the process had accelerated since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia realised that China is pumping tens of billions of dollars into defence research and production, annually,” Gabuev said.
Several Russian scientists working on weapons development have been imprisoned over the past decade for allegedly passing state secrets to China.
However, western sanctions have made Moscow increasingly dependent on China for access to dual-use goods needed to produce weapons for deployment in Ukraine and to refurbish its military-industrial production facilities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed in 2019 that Moscow was helping Beijing develop a missile-defence early-warning system.
China’s new Type 096 nuclear ballistic missile submarine was also developed with support from Russian technology for making its propulsion system more silent, according to US naval researchers.
Until relatively recently, Russia had resisted sharing advanced submarine technology with China. Beijing and Moscow have also been deepening military co-operation by holding large joint naval and air exercises.
Russia on Tuesday announced the start of a week-long naval exercise involving more than 400 vessels and submarines in the Pacific and Arctic oceans and the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic seas. Four Chinese warships would join the exercise in the Sea of Japan, it said.
Announcing the start of the drills, Putin accused the US of “trying to maintain its global military and political dominance at any cost”.
“Under the pretext of countering the alleged Russian threat and containing the People’s Republic of China, the US and its satellites are increasing their military presence near Russia’s western borders, in the Arctic and in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
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