The White House spokesperson says that if China provides assistance to Russia that violates sanctions, there will be 'significant consequences'.
To me, it's sounding more and more like China has already made up its mind. The Chinese press has been rife with stories about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine and I doubt that's a coincidence.
There has already been a pushback to the US comments as well.
More recently, there appears to be some anger from the US side, suggesting it was caught off guard. An unnamed senior US admin official offered a readout of Sullivan's seven-hour call with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, which was characterized as 'intense'.
- US has 'deep concerns' with Chinese alignment with Russia
- Conversation was 'very candid'
- Has been communicating directly and privately about support countries may be providing to Russia
Also notable is that in China's Global Times today was a commentary saying that Washington has no right to demand China to promise not to export arms to Russia or stop China-Russia trade. It said China will not seek to ease the tensions with the US by damaging China-Russia relations.
There was also this tweet:
It's starting to look like China is making a power play here that the US wasn't ready for. I don't think we can rule out China offering some kind of military assistance to Russia as well.
