According to US sources, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s senior diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday and will emphasize the economic consequences Beijing will suffer if it aids Russia in its war in Ukraine.
According to one US official, Sullivan would warn China of the global isolation it could face if it continues to assist Russia.
In recent weeks, officials from the US and other nations have tried to make it plain to China that siding with Russia might have ramifications for trade flows, the development of new technology, and expose it to secondary penalties.
Chinese enterprises that disobey US export prohibitions to Russia risk losing access to the American equipment and software they require to manufacture their goods, according to US officials. Gina Raimondo, the Secretary of Commerce, stated this last week.
It will be Sullivan’s first public encounter with Yang since closed-door talks in Zurich in October, which aimed to defuse tensions following an ugly public exchange in Alaska a year ago.
China is the world’s leading producer, the European Union’s largest trading partner, and the United States’ top foreign supplier of goods, so any restrictions on Chinese trade might have a negative impact on the US and its allies’ economies.
According to Reuters, US officials told Reuters on Sunday that Russia had approached China for military weapons following its incursion, raising concerns some Biden administration officials that Beijing could sabotage Western efforts to help Ukraine by bolstering Moscow’s military.
Washington was keeping a tight eye on China’s economic and material assistance to Russia.
The possibility of China serving as a mediator to end the war is far-fetched, according to Daniel Russel, who served as the senior US ambassador for East Asia under President Barack Obama and has close contacts to the Biden administration.
Even if Beijing may talk a nice game about ceasefires and mediation to absolve itself of guilt, he noted, this remained the fact.
