Russia could soon get a massive boost in its nearly year-long struggle to capture any meaningful land area in neighboring Ukraine.
That’s because according to The Hill, communist China might soon offer much-needed “lethal assistance,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed, to Russia as it rallies what troops and equipment it has left.
Blinken is fresh off a trip to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, where he met Wang Li, his Chinese counterpart.
The fear is not one of little consequence, as China easily has the resources to change the tide of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, even though publicly, China wants the world to believe it’s on the Ukrainian people’s side.
“Have it both ways”
Blinken explained to NBC’s Chuck Todd that China’s putting on a dual mask on the Russia/Ukraine war.
“China is trying to have it both ways,” Blinken told Todd in an interview.
“Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of non-lethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort.”
Antony Blinken: “We’ve seen already…provision of non-lethal assistance…And some further information that we are sharing today and that I think will be out there soon…indicates that they are strongly considering providing lethal assistance to Russia.”https://t.co/E3mbc7bZSH
— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 20, 2023
Blinken added: “We see China considering this. We have not seen them cross that line,” he said. “So, I think it’s important that we make clear, as I did this evening in my meeting with Wang Yi, that this is something that is of deep concern to us.”
“I made clear the importance of not crossing that line and the fact that it would have serious consequences on our own relationship, something that we do not need on top of the balloon incident that China is engaged in,” Blinken continued.
“Unacceptable”
Blinken also approached his Chinese counterpart on the spy balloon debacle from earlier this month. You know, the one where a sophisticated Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to traverse the U.S. mainland, sucking up data over important military sites, before it was shot down over the ocean once its mission was completed?
Yeah, that one. And Blinken simply told his counterpart that such antics are “unacceptable,” which probably caused his counterpart to spit out his drink in laughter.
“Well, I think that answer tell us something to read between the lines on that,” Chuck Todd says. https://t.co/CE111GAGG9
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) February 19, 2023
Only time will tell if China decides to help arm Russia, but if it does, the situation will take a nasty turn.