US officials meet China's vice-foreign minister after sanctions warning

WASHINGTON — US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and deputy national security adviser Jon Finer met China's Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu in Washington on May 30, a day after Washington accused Beijing's leadership of supporting Russia's war in Ukraine and warning that China could face further Western sanctions.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told a news briefing the meeting was part of intensive diplomacy in the past year to responsibly manage competition in the US-China relationship and the US expected more such senior-level engagement.

Patel said the US, its G-7 partners, and other EU and Nato countries shared the view that China's support for Russia "not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security".

He declined to provide details of any future sanctions when asked whether those might target Chinese leaders given Washington's comments, but added: "If China does not curtail its support for Russia's defence industrial base, the US will be prepared to take further steps."

Separately, the White House said Finer also met Ma on May 30 and the two discussed topics like counternarcotics, the Taiwan Strait, the Ukraine war and efforts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Brussels on May 29, Campbell said there was an urgent need for European and Nato countries "to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilising in the heart of Europe".

The Biden administration has stepped up warnings about China's support for Russia and issued an executive order in December that threatened sanctions on financial institutions helping Russia skirt Western sanctions.

Campbell said Chinese support, "with the backing of its leadership", was helping Moscow reconstitute elements of its military, including long-range missile, artillery and drone capabilities, and its ability to track battlefield movements.

In April, the US imposed sanctions on 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong, following repeated warnings from Washington about China's support for Russia's military.

After those steps, China's embassy in Washington said Beijing oversees the export of dual-use articles in accordance with laws and regulations, and that normal trade and economic interactions between China and Russia are in line with World Trade Organisation rules and market principles.

In a speech in Berlin on May 31, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is expected to call for further action to stem Russia's sanctions evasion and deliver a warning on China's role, highlighting the December executive order.

In April, a US official told Reuters that Washington had preliminarily discussed sanctions on some Chinese banks but did not yet have a plan to implement such measures.

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