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US secretary of state Antony Blinken will warn China that Washington will take punitive steps unless Beijing stops sending weapons-related technology to Russia.
During a visit to China next week, Blinken will tell his counterparts that the US and its allies are becoming increasingly impatient with Beijing’s refusal to stop providing Moscow with everything from chips to cruise missile engines to help rebuild its industrial base.
Blinken does not plan to reveal what measures Washington will take, but several people familiar with the situation said it is considering sanctions on Chinese financial institutions and other entities. One person said his message would be the clearest warning yet that the US had delivered in person to Chinese officials.
The US has in recent weeks stepped up its warnings about the situation, including in meetings with European and G7 allies.
One US official said that other G7 members had told Washington they had, or would, raise the issue with China after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Capri this week where Blinken discussed the matter.
One person said China had become increasingly concerned about the possibility of sanctions on its banks. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in December warning foreign financial institutions that they “risk losing access to the US financial system if they facilitate significant transactions relating to Russia’s military industrial base”.
“China has been worried for some time that the US might increase sanctions on China, particularly in the banking arena, because of its support to Russia during the war,” said Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst now at Georgetown University.
Four top Chinese lenders selectively stopped accepting payments from Russia last month, according to Russian media reports, particularly in relation to transactions for critical electronic components.
The US state department declined to comment.
Treasury secretary Janet Yellen raised the issue during a visit to China this month, but Blinken intends to press the matter in stronger terms. Biden voiced concern to Chinese President Xi Jinping when the leaders spoke by telephone three weeks ago.
While the US hopes the threat of punitive measures will persuade China to change course, it is also urging European countries to take action. The US believes European pressure is critical since China is worried about the impact on its economic relations with Europe as its own economy slows.
One person familiar with the deliberations said Europe had imposed sanctions on only three Chinese groups since the start of the Russian invasion two years ago, in comparison with 100 such actions against Chinese entities by Washington.
Senior US officials last week released a list of technologies that they said China was sending to Russia.
In 2023, they said, 90 per cent of the chips that Russia imported came from China and were being used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. They said 70 per cent of Russian machine tools imports in the final quarter of last year were from China, and that Moscow had “likely used” them to manufacture ballistic missiles.
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