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China says US in no position to make demands after Blinken warning
"The United States is in no position to make demands of China," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular daily briefing in Beijing, when asked about US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comments.
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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin takes a question at the Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing on November 9, 2020. (AFP/Greg Baker)
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hina said on Monday that the United States is in no position to make demands, after the top US diplomat warned his Chinese counterpart over the weekend against China providing weapons to Russia in its war in Ukraine.
"The United States is in no position to make demands of China," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular daily briefing in Beijing, when asked about US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comments.
Wang Wenbin was speaking as Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi was expected to arrivein Moscow, days after he met with Blinken on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.
"China's comprehensive collaborative partnership with Russia is based on the basis of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties, and is a matter within the sovereignty of two independent countries," Wang Wenbin said.
He was referring to the "no limits" partnership struck just over a year ago between Beijing and Moscow, weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We will never accept the US pointing fingers at Sino-Russian relations or even coercing us," Wang Wenbin told the briefing in Beijing.
US-China ties have been further strained this month after the US military shot down what it says was a Chinese spy balloon that had drifted over the United States. China says the balloon was a civilian research vessel that was accidentally blown off course, calling the US response an overreaction.
In Munich, Blinken and Wang Yi clashed over Washington's shooting down of a Chinese balloon over its airspace.
During their encounter, Blinken "directly spoke to the unacceptable violation of US sovereignty and international law by (China's) high-altitude surveillance balloon in US territorial airspace", State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
He also warned Wang "about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion", Price said.
In turn, Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi told Blinken that their countries' relations had been damaged by how Washington reacted to the balloon, which China has repeatedly described as a civilian craft for weather research that veered off course.
Wang Yi "made clear China's solemn position on the so-called airship incident", and "urged the US side to change course, acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force caused to China-US relations," state news agency Xinhua reported.
Speaking on Saturday at the gathering of world leaders in Munich, the diplomat had condemned the US reaction to the balloon as "hysterical and absurd".
