War in Ukraine: Biden warns China, Xi Jinping cultivates ambiguity

Europe 1 with AFP 9:44 p.m., March 18, 2022

A long-awaited exchange which hardly moved the lines: Joe Biden warned Xi Jinping on Friday of the "consequences" for China of aid to Russia, while the Chinese president cultivated ambiguity, confining itself to considering that military conflicts were "in no one's interest".

The US president "outlined the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it carries out a brutal attack on Ukrainian cities and civilians", in a nearly two-hour video call devoted mainly to the war in Ukraine, the White House said in a brief statement.

Detailed economic and financial sanctions

If he did not specify what reprisals China would expose itself to if it provided assistance to Russia, Joe Biden on the other hand "detailed" the harsh economic and financial sanctions already imposed by the West on the regime of Vladimir Putin, according to the American presidency.

A senior American official said the President of the United States had been "frank and direct" with his counterpart, a diplomatic way of saying that the exchange was probably not excessively warm.

While the White House statement was delayed for almost four hours after the end of the interview, China was quick to deliver its version of the conversation around the "crisis" or "situation" in Ukraine. , without ever mentioning "war".

"The Ukrainian crisis is not something we wanted to see" happen, said the Chinese head of state, according to comments reported by Chinese television while the exchange was still in progress.

China's statements still ambiguous

He called on his counterpart to "work for peace and tranquility in the world" with him, according to the same source.

Where the United States urges China to distance itself from Russia, official statements from Beijing during and after the exchange between heads of state maintain a certain ambiguity.

China calls on the United States and NATO to have a "dialogue" with Russia on the "security concerns" of Moscow and kyiv, in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published at the end of the exchange.

This is a theme dear to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who justifies the invasion of Ukraine by the need to protect his country against the expansionist desires of the Western military alliance, according to him.

China calls on major countries to 'respect each other'

This same press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry also calls in vague terms on “big countries” to “respect each other”.

And he also warns, in a very general way, against any form of "broad and indiscriminate sanctions" which could "cripple an already struggling world economy and cause irreparable losses."

The lines therefore did not really move during this conversation, which Joe Biden conducted from the "Situation Room", this ultra-secure room of the White House from where the United States conducts its riskiest operations and its toughest negotiations.

“It is now the actions (of China) that we are going to watch,” said US executive spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

The United States attentive to any help from China to Russia

For Joe Biden, the two superpowers are certainly destined to engage in ruthless competition on the economic and strategic level, but by maintaining sufficient dialogue so that this confrontation is not a factor of chaos at the international level.

But this vision of the American president would not resist open support from China to Russia, manifested by arms deliveries, or by economic and financial agreements giving Moscow the means to at least partially circumvent the very severe Western sanctions.

Xi Jinping also took advantage of the call to issue a warning to his counterpart, saying that "mismanagement of the Taiwan issue would have a negative impact on the bilateral relationship".

Joe Biden "repeated that US policy on Taiwan has not changed", and "insisted that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo".

China claims the island.

The United States undertakes to recognize only one China, while providing arms to Taiwan for its self-defense.