Blinken’s “Warning” to China Falls Flat: No Change in Russia Policy

This week, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

As one of the first major diplomatic conferences since the Chinese spy balloon incident, it was an opportunity for representatives from both countries to come together and work out their differences. However, instead of focusing on diplomacy, Secretary Blinken took a more aggressive approach by issuing threats and warnings to China’s highest-ranking diplomat, Wang Yi.

In his meeting with Wang Yi, Secretary Blinken warned him that China should not provide any further military aid to Russia or else there will be consequences. He also demanded that China stop all activities related to cyber espionage and spying. This was met with a swift rebuke from the Chinese delegation who reminded Mr. Blinken that America has no right to interfere in internal Chinese matters. They also accused him of using the conference as an excuse to bully them into complying with his demands.

In addition to these warnings and threats, Secretary Blinken also used this opportunity to reiterate America’s stance on human rights violations in China and its opposition to Beijing’s policies in Hong Kong and Tibet. While these are indeed important issues that must be addressed, many feel that he should have focused more on diplomacy and finding ways for both countries to work together rather than issuing ultimatums.

According to HotAir:

As far as China’s relationship with Russia goes, it’s currently believed that China has only been providing non-lethal, humanitarian aid to Russia. But Blinken suggested that there may soon be evidence that Beijing plans to start offering military equipment and “lethal aid” to Putin. Blinken is saying that any such aid would have “serious consequences” for Sino-American relations.

But it doesn’t appear that China is very concerned about any further deterioration in our relationship, which is pretty much a dumpster fire at this point anyway. And there is some obvious duplicity in “demanding” that China not provide lethal aid to the Russians while we’re busy sending tanks to Kyiv and will very likely follow those up with fighter jets later this year.