4 2GM Tuesday March 15 2022 | the times
News
China has expressed willingness to give
Russia military and economic support
as it wages war on Ukraine, United
States officials said yesterday.
The message, raising the prospect of
a proxy war between Nato and China,
was delivered to US allies as President
Biden’s national security adviser and
Beijing’s top diplomat met in Rome.
Jake Sullivan warned his counterpart
Yang Jiechi of the penalties China could
face for supplying Russia with muni-
tions, or for helping it to evade western
sanctions. The State Department said
that Sullivan’s meeting with Wang was
“an intense seven-hour session reflect-
ing the gravity of the moment, as well as
our commitment to maintaining open
lines of communication” that also
covered Taiwan and North Korea.
A senior official said: “We do have
deep concerns about China’s alignment
with Russia at this time and the
national security adviser was direct
about those concerns and the potential
implications and consequences of
certain actions.”
Among the assistance Russia re-
quested were pre-packaged military
food kits, known in the US as “meal,
ready-to-eat” or MREs, sources told
CNN. This underlined the basic logisti-
cal challenges slowing Russian pro-
gress in Ukraine and may be one aspect
the Chinese feel they can provide with-
out provoking western retaliation.
American officials told allies that the
Kremlin had requested drones, intelli-
gence equipment, surface-to-air missil-
es and armoured and logistics vehicles,
according to the Financial Times.
“At the tactical level it is very bad for
Ukraine,” said Robert Clark, a defence
fellow at Civitas, a think tank. “It’s
already a largely contested airspace
and an influx of Chinese-made attack
drones, which are good, would inevit-
ably help tip that air balance more in
terms of helping Russia gain superi-
ority in key areas.”
But he added: “China will be wary of
being seen to be supplying Russia dir-
ectly with Chinese arms for fear of
sanctions which would likely come.”
A senior Whitehall source said there
was not yet any indication that China
would supply its drones.
“They would need training if they
did, which would take time,” the source
said. “Whatever they are, our HVM
[high velocity missile] would easily
shoot them down,” referring to Star-
streak, the fastest short-range surface-
to-air system in the world, which Brit-
ain is preparing to send to Ukraine.
US intelligence reports on China’s
willingness to help Russia were passed
to allies in person and in diplomatic
cables yesterday. A US official said that
China was expected to deny the claims.
The intelligence sharing was disclosed
as part of an American strategy of being
more open, to counter Russian disinfor-
mation, the official said.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokes-
man denied that Russia had requested
military or economic support, calling it
American “disinformation”.
Before the talks in Rome, Sullivan
said the Biden administration was
“watching closely” to see how far China
would support Russia. He added that
the US would “not allow” that aid “to go
forward”, appearing to acknowledge
that the US would be prepared to sanc-
tion China. Chinese officials have re-
frained from referring to Russia’s inva-
sion, preferring to stress the import-
ance of “sovereignty and territorial
integrity” and calling on “all parties” to
exercise restraint. Last week China’s
foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao
Lijian, spoke in support of a claim made
by the Russian foreign ministry that the
US was funding chemical and biologi-
cal weapons laboratories in Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US
ambassador to the UN, said the labora-
tories were healthcare facilities for
detecting Covid-19.
Russia has denied seeking Chineseaid for its invasion. “Russia has its own
potential to continue the operation,
which, as we have said, is unfolding in
accordance with the plan,” Dmitry
Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said yester-
day.
Ukrainian representatives held a
fourth round of talks with Russian offi-
cials yesterday. Mykhailo Podolyak, an
adviser to President Zelensky, said they
would resume this morning.
6 The Ukrainian air force said on Tele-
gram last night that a Russian drone
crossed into Poland and back into
Ukraine before being shot down by
Ukrainian air defences.The statement
said the drone first circled over the
Yavoriv site to apparently assess the
damage and then flew into Poland
before returning to Ukrainian airspace
and being hit.Q&A
Russia has started targeting Ukrainian
cities with white phosphorus shells,
according to the Ukrainian Ministry of
Defence. The deployment of the
burning bombs — controversial for
their indiscriminate use against
civilians in other conflicts — is said to
be the latest example of Russia
escalating its attacks on key cities.What is white phosphorus?
It is a substance used by forces aroundthe world in smoke, illumination and
incendiary munitions, and is typically
the burning element in tracer
ammunition. It burns brightly when
exposed to air and produces smoke,
meaning it can be used to mark targets
at night by lighting up an area on the
battlefield or to create smokescreens
during the day which provide cover
from enemy fire. It can also be used as
an incendiary weapon to rain fire down
on to targets, burning buildings and
leaving civilians with horrific injuries.What rules govern it?
The use of weapons containing white
phosphorus is tightly restricted but not
banned under international law. Like all
weapons, it is regulated by the basicTop, responders at the scene of a Russian rocket attack in Kharkiv; left, high-riseNews War in Ukraine
Don’t send drones
to aid Russia’s war,
US warns Beijing
Will Pavia, Larisa Brown, David Charter Analysis
I
t was the shortest
of honeymoons.
When Jake
Sullivan, the US
national security
adviser, met a top
Chinese diplomat in
Rome yesterday, there
was one certainty: the
Sino-Russian alliance
sealed on the eve of
the Beijing Winter
Olympics is not
turning out to be a
marriage made in
heaven (Roger Boyes
writes).
President Xi had
talked of relations
with Moscow being
“rock solid”, his
friendship with his
Russian counterpart
had “no limits”, and it
was assumed that
President Putin had
been given the green
light to invade as long
as he did not distract
from the Games.
Now Russia’s
error-prone war has
turned Putin into a
supplicant. He needs
China’s help to dodge
sanctions, to wriggle
out of a catastrophic
default, to find ways
of paying for Russian
gas and, perhaps, to
replenish its arsenal.
However, Beijing is
suddenly very
uncomfortable about
helping Moscow. Xi
was starry-eyed about
the Putin leadership
because it seemed to
be able to use force to
change the game and
demonstrate Nato’s
limits. China has not
seen real combat
since the not-exactly-
heroic border war
with Vietnam in 1979.In the Putin era
Russia has waged war
with Chechnya and
Georgia, been active
in Syria, turned
mercenaries into an
expeditionary force,
and twice invaded
Ukraine. As a result
Chinese military
academies avidly
study Russian
battlefield successes.
The present
operation, however,
has so far been a
study in failure. China
does not want to
provoke a direct
confrontation with
the US. Its payments
network is dependent
on the Swift
messaging system,
from which some
Russian banks are
now barred.
Although it has a
strategic interest in
discrediting western
sanctions, Beijing
cannot hope to
provide a complete
workaround for
Russia. It would not
be difficult for the US
to impose secondary
sanctions on Chinese
companies that
helped Russia.
Also, although
China may have
hoped to act as a
mediator over
Ukraine, it cannot be
seen as an honest
broker if it boosts
Putin’s arms stocks.
The Chinese had a
good working
relationship with
Ukraine, which
benefited from the
Belt and Road
initiative. But China’s
ideas — five-partytalks involving Russia,
Ukraine, China, the
US and the EU, or the
UN security council
permanent five plus
Ukraine — look likely
to founder. Moreover,
Putin’s loose threat of
escalation to a
nuclear exchange has
stoked tensions in the
Chinese
neighbourhood.
Among Japan’s ruling
Liberal Democrats,
senior figures are
suggesting that the
country should host
US nuclear weapons.
That could be
regarded as the
logical response to an
alliance between
China and a nuclear-
threatening Russia.
Australia has
announced a shortlist
of locations for a new
base for nuclear-
powered submarines.
Go Myong-hyun, of
the Asan Institute for
Policy Studies in
Seoul, says: “There is
a view in the Korean
defence establishment
that Ukraine was not
adequately militarily
prepared for war, and
that will reinforce a
bipartisan consensus
that South Korea
needs to invest more
heavily in its defence.”
All that China
wanted for this year
was a period of
stability to continue
the fight against
coronavirus, to
prepare for the party
congress and secure
Xi’s rule. Instead its
over-enthusiastic axis
with Russia has got it
into a fine old mess.