(RoyalPatriot.com )- President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were set to speak on Friday, according to the White House.
The aim of the talks from Biden’s point of view is to continue to warn the Communist country against supporting Russia as they continue to escalate their invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement released on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said:
“This is part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC (People’s Republic of China). The two leaders will discuss managing the competition between our two countries as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern.”
The talks between the two countries’ leaders comes only a few days after Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, met with his counterpart in the Chinese government in Rome. During that meeting, Biden administration officials said Sullivan advised the Chinese official that China would face serious consequences if it were to aid Russia either militarily or financially.
The last time Biden spoke with Xi was during a virtual meeting back in November. That was months before Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine behind the orders of its President Vladimir Putin.
It’s been reported that Russia has asked China to provide them with military assistance to help them with their invasion.
On Thursday, Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said America is concerned that China might consider providing direct assistance to Russia. He explained that the president intended to clearly state to Xi that China would face serious consequences if it chose to take that route.
Speaking with reporters, Blinken said:
“We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support. Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter.”
Sullivan’s meeting with Yang Jiechi, the top diplomat from China, was quite intense, administration officials have said. It was also straight to the point. While a lot of topics were discussed, much of the meeting was spent talking about the war in Ukraine.
Following that meeting, a senior official with the Biden administration 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.”
What worries American officials the most is that the relationship between Russia and China has strengthened considerably over recent years. Not long before Russia invaded Ukraine, the two countries released a joint statement that said the relationship between them had “no limits.”
That certainly has U.S. officials concerned that China could get much more directly involved in the war in Ukraine, which certainly has the potential to take it to another level entirely.
Psaki said earlier in the week that China would face similar “significant consequences” to what Russia is facing if it were to support Russia with any military aid or anything that “violates sanctions or supports the war efforts.”
