by Debra Heine
Over the past several months, senior Biden administration officials held six “urgent meetings” with Communist Chinese officials pleading with them to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade, according to the New York Times.
The Americans presented the CCP officials—which included the foreign minister and the ambassador to the United States—intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials told the Times.
Each time, the Americans were rebuffed, with the CCP officials saying they did not think an invasion was in the works, the sources said. Worse yet, U.S. intelligence allegedly caught the Chinese going behind the Biden regime’s back after a diplomatic meeting in December, telling Moscow that the United States was “trying to sow discord.” According to the U.S. sources, China assured the Kremlin it would not “try to impede their plans and actions.”
According to the Times, Secretary of State Antony Blinken himself spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in late January and again on Monday, “the same day Putin ordered the new troops into Russia-backed enclaves of Ukraine.”
“The secretary underscored the need to preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said a State Department summary of the call.
The previously unreported talks between U.S. and Chinese officials show how the Biden administration tried to use intelligence findings and diplomacy to persuade a superpower it views as a growing adversary to stop the invasion of Ukraine, and how that nation, led by President Xi Jinping, persistently sided with Russia even as the evidence of Moscow’s plans for a military offensive grew over the winter.
This account is based on interviews with senior administration officials with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy. The Chinese Embassy did not return requests for comment.
China is Russia’s most powerful partner, and the two nations have been strengthening their bond for many years across diplomatic, economic and military realms. Xi and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, two autocrats with some shared ideas about global power, had met 37 times as national leaders before this year. If any world leader could make Putin think twice about invading Ukraine, it was Xi, went the thinking of some U.S. officials.
But the diplomatic efforts failed, and Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday morning after recognizing two Russia-backed insurgent enclaves in the country’s east as independent states.
After Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said at a news conference in Beijing that the U.S. was “the culprit of current tensions surrounding Ukraine.”
“On the Ukraine issue, lately the U.S. has been sending weapons to Ukraine, heightening tensions, creating panic and even hyping up the possibility of warfare,” she said. “If someone keeps pouring oil on the flame while accusing others of not doing their best to put out the fire, such kind of behavior is clearly irresponsible and immoral.”
Chunying added: “When the U.S. drove five waves of NATO expansion eastward all the way to Russia’s doorstep and deployed advanced offensive strategic weapons in breach of its assurances to Russia, did it ever think about the consequences of pushing a big country to the wall?” She has refused to call Russia’s assault an “invasion” when pressed by foreign journalists.
The Biden regime’s failure to rein in Putin stands in stark contrast with how former President Trump reportedly handled diplomacy with his Russian and Chinese adversaries.
According to the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin, Trump warned Putin not to attempt a land grab during his presidency.
“If you move against Ukraine while I’m president,” Trump allegedly told the Russian leader, “I will hit Moscow.”
Putin reportedly scoffed, “No way,” leading Trump to say, “All those beautiful golden turrets will be blown up.”
A similar story involves Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was during his visit to Mar-a-Lago in 2017 when Trump famously interrupted their chocolate cake dessert to declare he had just ordered the US military to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base after the Syrian government used chemical weapons against rebels and civilians.
During that same visit, Trump reportedly told Xi that any military move against Taiwan would be met with an attack on Beijing. Xi, like Putin, is said to have been stunned, though it is possible neither man believed Trump was serious. While it is also possible that both accounts are exaggerated, it is a fact that neither man made the moves Trump is said to have warned against.
“I got along best with the tougher ones” Trump once said, regarding his relations with foreign leaders.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
