US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed concern on Friday about China's support for the Russian army, one of many issues that threaten to derail the recent improvement in relations between the world's largest economies, UNN reports citing Reuters.
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Blinken raised the issue during five-and-a-half hours of talks with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Beijing, the latest high-level contact between the two countries to ease the tensions that pushed relations to a historic low last year.
The US diplomat is to conclude his visit on Friday, reportedly "with little progress on many contentious issues," including US complaints about cheap Chinese exports. Instead, both sides are focusing on pragmatic issues such as people-to-people exchanges.
"The secretary of state discussed concerns about China's support for Russia's defense industrial base," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, adding that the two sides also discussed Taiwan, the South China Sea, and other hotspots.
Despite its "boundless" partnership with Moscow, China has avoided supplying weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine. But U.S. officials warn that the country's companies are helping the Russian arms industry.
U.S. officials say such assistance risks damaging the broader bilateral relationship, even as relations have stabilized since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in 2022 and the U.S. shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February 23.
China said it has not supplied weapons to either side, adding that it "is not a producer or party involved in the Ukrainian crisis." However, it said that normal trade between China and Russia should not be interrupted or restricted.
In addition to his talks with Wang Yi, Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who reiterated Beijing's concern that the United States was suppressing the country's economic development.
"This is a fundamental issue that needs to be resolved, like the first button on a shirt that needs to be properly buttoned for Sino-US relations to truly stabilize, improve, and move forward," Xi said.
Earlier, Wang told Blinken that the "giant ship" of China's ties has stabilized, "but the negative factors in the relationship are still intensifying and growing.
Wang also said that the United States has taken "endless" measures to suppress China's economy, trade, science and technology, equating such steps to containment.
"And the relationship is facing all kinds of violations. China's legitimate rights to development have been unreasonably suppressed, and our core interests are being challenged," Van Blinken said.
The agenda for the talks was set during the November summit between Biden and Xi Jinping in San Francisco and a subsequent phone call in April.
Highlighting the growing differences between the two sides, hours before Blinken landed in China on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill that included $8 billion to counter China's military might, as well as billions in defense aid for Taiwan and $61 billion for Ukraine.
Wang said the U.S. should not step on "red lines" encompassing sovereignty, security, and development interests - an apparent reference to Taiwan, the democratically governed island that China calls its own, and the disputed South China Sea.
Other issues under consideration include artificial intelligence and the U.S. desire to make progress in curbing China's supply of chemicals used to produce fentanyl. Blinken, along with senior U.S. officials involved in counterdrug cooperation with China, met with Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong to discuss the fentanyl problem.
On the eve of Friday's talks, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made it clear that Biden was not removing any options for responding to China's excessive industrial capacity from the agenda.
Wang said that the United States should stop "pushing" a "false narrative" about China's excessive power.