The U.S. warns Chinese firms against assisting Russia in Ukraine sanctions

The U.S. warns Chinese firms against assisting Russia in Ukraine sanctions. 

WASHINGTON: The United States warned Chinese firms on Thursday that they could be punished if they tried to avoid any export restrictions placed by Moscow in the case of Russia invading Ukraine.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price remarked on China’s Foreign Ministry’s announcement that China and Russia have aligned their positions on Ukraine at a conference between the foreign ministers of both countries in Beijing the previous day. 

“We have an array of tools that we can deploy if we see foreign companies, including those in China, doing their best to backfill U.S. export control actions, to evade them, to get around them,” Price said during a weekly news briefing.

Western countries believe Russia’s threat of an invasion into Ukraine will result in sanctions on Moscow. 

MORE: U.S. lawmakers push to redesign Taiwan’s official Embassy in Washington.

In addition, Washington has indicated that it’s ready to apply financial sanctions and export control measures.

White House national security official Peter Harrell said on Wednesday that Washington was working on export-control measures in conjunction with allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea.

Price stated that Russia must be aware that more robust relations with Beijing will not compensate for the consequences imposed in the aftermath of an attack.

“If Russia thinks that it will be in a position … to mitigate some of those consequences, by a closer relationship with (China), that is not the case. On the contrary, it will make the Russian economy, in many ways, more brittle,” the official said.

“If you deny yourself the ability to transact with the West, to import with the West, from Europe, from the United States, you are going to degrade your productive capacity and your innovative potential significantly.”

Price stated that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had an extended discussion about the potential consequences of Russian actions against Ukraine during a telephone call the week prior. 

In response to Price’s comments, Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for China’s Washington Embassy, said: “We have noted relevant reports. However, creating tensions does no good at easing the Ukraine crisis but only adds more uncertainties to the region and the world. China is firmly opposed to this.”

The ministry of foreign affairs in China earlier reported that Wang had a meeting with Russian, the Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and expressed “understanding and support” for Russia’s security position in Russia’s relations with the United States and NATO.

It was reported that both sides agreed to coordinate their positions on concerns of common concern like Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the Korean Peninsula situation.

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet on the weekend on the demand of Britain and the United States and Britain after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile with intermediate-range over the weekend.

The United States has been pushing for further international sanctions against North Korea over a recent wave of missile tests. 

However, China and Russia have slowed down the U.S. bid to impose U.N. sanctions on five North Koreans linked to their nation’s weapon programs in the last week.

Lavrov is currently in Beijing together with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The latter will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before attending the opening ceremony for Beijing Winter Olympics. Beijing Winter Olympics.