President Biden plans to hold a high-stakes call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday as the U.S. pressures Beijing to leverage its ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his brutal assault on Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the call will focus on the war and economic issues beyond the war in Ukraine.
“This is part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and [China],” Ms. Psaki said. “The two leaders will discuss managing the competition between our two countries as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern.”
The call will also focus on other issues like the supply chain crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Psaki said. Still, the war in Ukraine is expected to take up much of the time during the call.
“This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands,” she said. “There has been of course rhetorical support or the absence of denunciation by China for what Russia is doing, including the basic principles of the U.N. charter.”
Ms. Psaki said the U.S. intelligence has significant concerns that China will provide Russia with weapons. She said if China does provide aid to Russia there will be “consequences,” but declined to spell out what they would be.
Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin said there were “no limits” to their friendship on the cusp of the Winter Olympic Games last month in Beijing, but the Ukraine invasion is putting that friendship to the test.
Reports suggest China was caught somewhat off-guard by the scale of Mr. Putin’s assault on Ukraine, and it will have to consider whether it becomes an economic safety net for Moscow as Russia faces crippling sanctions. China also had a significant trading relationship with Kyiv and has long championed the principle of national sovereignty.
News reports say the U.S. tried to enlist China in the campaign to head off Russia’s invasion last month, as Mr. Putin assembled forces on the border, but Beijing declined to cooperate.
China’s Foreign Ministry has hit back at what it says is Washington’s pressure campaign to force Beijing to choose sides in the clash. China’s state-controlled press has largely backed Russia’s version of events, saying NATO’s expansion into eastern Europe helped spark the war and that the Kremlin’s charges that the U.S. operated suspect bio-labs in Ukraine deserved a full investigation.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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