Blinken Accuses China of Supporting Russian Defense Industry

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that although China isn't directly supplying arms and ammunition to Russia, it is providing "incalculable support" to the Russian defense industry through the sale of microelectronic products, machine tools, and optics.

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"It's fair to say that China isn't directly supplying Russia with weapons, missiles, and ammunition. Iran is doing that. North Korea is doing that," said the U.S. diplomatic chief at the special session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Saudi Arabia.

However, Blinken warned that what the Asian giant is indeed doing is "providing incalculable support to Russia's defense industrial base," which in his opinion is alleviating the "massive pressure" exerted against Moscow through sanctions, export controls, and other measures.

"If we look at what Russia has done over the past year in terms of ammunition, missiles, tanks, and armored vehicles, they've produced them at a faster rate than at any other time in their modern history, even during the Cold War," he said.

Blinken argued that this has been possible because Russia "is receiving massive inputs of machine tools, microelectronics, and optics, mostly from China."

"These are dual-use items, but we know very clearly where many of them end up, and this poses problems that allow Russia to continue its aggression against Ukraine," he said.

"Therefore, it is perpetuating a war that China says it would like to see end, as would all of us," U.S. Secretary of State added. 

Blinken also stated that the increase in Russia's production capabilities is something that deeply concerns Europe, fearing it might turn against them once the Ukraine war ends.