Beijing’s leadership is determined to back Moscow “to the hilt,” says State Department No. 2 Kurt Campbell.

Beijing’s leadership is determined to back Moscow “to the hilt,” says State Department No. 2 Kurt Campbell.

The U.S. is stepping up diplomatic efforts to convince Europe about the scale of China’s role in aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

And according to the second most senior figure in the U.S. State Department, Europe is now hardening its stance on Beijing.

Kurt Campbell — the deputy secretary of state who until recently served as U.S. President Joe Biden’s “Indo-Pacific czar” — this week hand-delivered that warning to European diplomats in NATO with “as much detail and specifics as possible.” His visit came ahead of a big NATO leaders’ summit in Washington in July at which the alliance is expected to send a serious message to Beijing.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      30 days ago

      China is avoiding settling payments with Russian for months because of US heat in the banking sector. China doesn’t want to get cut off, and we’re pressuring them to choose between banking with Russia or banking with the rest of the world. This has had a serious effect and Russia is now settling transactions in Bitcoin for the first time officially. Thats some great pressure if Russia’s biggest ally is so concerned about taking Russian money they’re not doing so.

  • Obinice@lemmy.worldEnglish
    108·
    30 days ago

    Phew, whatever would we dumb simple Europeans do without the USA to warn us to not fall for the extremely obvious?

    So glad they could warn us that China might not be entirely sincere in their relationship with the west.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      29 days ago

      You’re seeing a public act of geopolitics. Of course Europe knows of China’s position. The USA knows Europe knows. What exists now is a public declaration. This is on a path that could turn into “We, the USA, are doing something about it. You might want to take steps not to get caught in the fallout. We’d also welcome you to join with us in what we’re doing.”

  • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    28 days ago

    The US warning Europe is rich, The US has given so much aid to Russia both tangible and throuhh their complete uselessness and inability to govern themselves.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    30 days ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    BRUSSELS — The U.S. is stepping up diplomatic efforts to convince Europe about the scale of China’s role in aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

    Kurt Campbell — the deputy secretary of state who until recently served as U.S. President Joe Biden’s “Indo-Pacific czar” — this week hand-delivered that warning to European diplomats in NATO with “as much detail and specifics as possible.”

    “It is fair to say that China’s general goal has been not only to support Russia — in our view, to the hilt — but to downplay that publicly and try to maintain normal diplomatic and commercial ties with Europe,” Campbell told a small group of media outlets including POLITICO during a visit to Brussels on Wednesday.

    European firms — from German auto giants to French cognac-makers — have been appealing to their countries not to go down the path of a trade war with China, for fear of losing market access should the Chinese authorities take punitive action in retaliation.

    Campbell cited China’s economic uncertainties as a reason Beijing might not retaliate against Europe — if tariffs are imposed — as rigorously as it had in the past.

    “In the current environment, I think China is aware of some of the vulnerabilities of its own economy, and so it has been wary to undertake some of the full-scale efforts [of] retaliation that we’ve seen in previous periods against Australia, South Korea, Philippines and others,” he said.

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