Yesterday at 23:33
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps says that China has pledged lethal weapons to Russia.
According to Reuters, Grant Shapps has revealed that US and UK Defence intelligence have evidence indicating “lethal aid is now, or will be, flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine”.
“We should be concerned about that because in the earlier days of this war China would like to present itself as a moderating influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin,” said Shapps on May 22, adding that it was a “significant development”.
However, just on May 21, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the fact that the US still saw no proof of China delivering weaponry to Russia.
“We have not seen China provide actual weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. North Korea is doing that. Iran is doing that,” said Blinken.
Despite that, Blinken has stated multiple times that China provides “overwhelming support” to Russia’s defense industrial base, supplying machine tools, chemicals for munitions, and microelectronics in large numbers. It is known that he brought this issue up as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his counterpart, Wang Yi, during in Beijing last month.
After that, the US made clear it would continue to curb China’s export of dual-use products to Russia.
“We’ve sanctioned more than 100 Chinese entities that we’ve identified they were engaged in providing dual use products, other things that are in sanctions lists. We will continue to do that. And we are working to coordinate our efforts with European and other partners,” Blinken said at hearings in the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
