Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois said on Twitter that despite the Chinese government's stance that it's not taking a side in the Russia-Ukraine war, it appears that China firmly favors Russia.
"The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) continues to increasingly align with the positions of Russia regarding the Ukraine war, despite its insistence that it remains neutral in the conflict," Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said in a Feb. 22 Twitter post, in which he shared a Washington Post story on a visit by Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, to Russia to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Reuters, Wang told Putin that bilateral trade was going better than expected, and Putin said he looked forward to a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping soon.
"Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers," Putin said in the Reuters report.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the visit, which took place just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, deepened concerns within the U.S. that China is aligning with Russia.
"We are concerned because these two countries share a vision. It is a vision … of an era in which big countries could bully small countries, borders could be redrawn by force, an era in which might could make right," Price said in the story. He said that China has not yet provided "Russia with lethal aid, but we don't believe they've taken it off the table either."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently warned China against supplying Russia with weapons, saying that doing so would have serious repercussions, New Jersey Public Radio (NPR) reported. Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center's Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, said in the article that although China has not provided Russia with weapons, it has helped in other ways.
"China is helping Russia through providing an awful lot of dual-use technology — things like semiconductors, drones, chemical precursors that can be used in weapons," Daly said in the NPR report, adding that China has spoken out in defense of Russia on the world stage. Blinken said China is "pushing the Russian line that it was NATO's expansion eastward that truly threatened Russian sovereignty and that justified the violence."
Putin said on Wednesday, Feb. 22, that Russia was suspending, but not ending, its participation in the nuclear treaty New START, which was signed in 2010, Reuters reported.
"I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty," he said in a speech to the Russian Parliament, in which he accused the West of being involved in Ukrainian attacks in Russian territory, specifically on sites that hold Russian strategic bomber planes. He ridiculed the requirement that he should allow NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to inspect Russia's nuclear bases, as mandated in the START treaty, since, in his view, NATO has been involved in attacking Russia.
"The U.S. and NATO openly say that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And what — after that, they are going to drive around our defense facilities, including the newest ones, as if nothing had happened?" Putin said in his speech.
According to a Feb. 1 statement on his website, Krishnamoorthi has been appointed to serve as ranking member on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the CCP.
"I look forward to working with my colleagues in both parties on this committee to counteract the CCP’s escalating aggression and ensure that our nation is prepared to overcome the economic and security challenges that the CCP presents to our country," Krishnamoorthi said in the statement.
