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File image of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Manuel Balce Ceneta

US expresses 'deep concerns' about Russia and China's alignment

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s chief diplomat, met today.

THE UNITED STATES has expressed concern about “alignment” between Russia and China, after high-ranking US and Chinese officials met for seven hours on the Ukraine war and other security issues.

“We do have deep concerns about China’s alignment with Russia,” a senior US official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding: “It was a very candid conversation.”

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s chief diplomat, met in a Rome hotel for what a White House readout described as a “substantial” session.

The White House said the two officials also “underscored the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and China.”

Moscow and Beijing have drawn closer in what Washington sees as an increasingly hostile alliance of the authoritarian nuclear powers.

Sullivan’s meeting with the top Chinese diplomat was planned weeks ago, officials say, but the encounter took on new importance against the backdrop of President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught against Ukrainian cities.

The officials were also meeting a day after US media reported that Russia has asked China for military and economic assistance as its troops struggle to make ground in Ukraine and its economy faces devastation from Western sanctions.

The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials, said there was no indication whether China had responded, but China has so far sent mixed signals on Russia’s bloody invasion and US officials say the jury is still out on how Beijing will act.

China’s ‘leverage’ on Russia

Washington hopes Beijing can use its influence on Putin. And while Beijing does not back Western sanctions, the White House is pressuring the economic giant at minimum to refrain from rescuing Russia from potential default or sending weaponry.

“We’ve communicated very clearly to Beijing, that we won’t stand by,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “We will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses.”

“We are watching very closely the extent to which… [China] or any other country for that matter provides any form of support, whether that’s material support, economic support,” he said.

Price also stressed China’s “tremendous leverage” over Russia and said “China could do more than probably many other countries to bring an end to this senseless violence, to this brutality, to Putin’s premeditated war.”

Beijing refused to directly address the reports, instead accusing Washington of maliciously spreading “disinformation” over China’s role in the Ukraine war.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told journalists today that China had “played a constructive role in urging peace and calling for negotiations.”

The senior US official told reporters that in addition to Ukraine, Sullivan and Yang discussed North Korea, which is ramping up missile tests, and tension over Taiwan, which is run as an independent country but is claimed by China.

The official described the talks as reflecting the “intensity” of the current atmosphere and that it was important to have “a candid, direct exchange of views.”

“We believe that it is important to keep open lines of communication between the United States and China, especially on areas where we disagree,” the official said.

 © AFP 2022

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    Mute JPM
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:42 PM

    China has eyes on Taiwan. If Russia succeeds then so could they.

    182
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    Mute Laura McCarthy
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:48 PM

    The two nations that are more or less the largest suppliers of raw materials that we need in the west. Why wouldn’t they team up, they can hold the whole world to ransom and emerge as the de facto superpower. In history every empire falls greek, roman, british and next it will be the united states.

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:54 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: what “raw materials” does China supply? China has to source raw materials, metals, ore etc. from other countries like Australia or countries in Africa.

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    Mute Laura McCarthy
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:59 PM

    @Diaspora’d: if you want it be podantic and think you are so smart by trying to ping out a mistake rather than having an intelligent discussion then so be it. But as you have tried to be smart, let me reply – plywood, tea, petrolem are raw materials, but let’s go further, in this day and age raw materials now include technology that we reply on. Now join the conversation as a listener unless you have something intelligent to say.

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    Mute Appaddy
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:14 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: wars were always about religion or commodities- mainly the latter. 75% of Australian GDP is mining, mainly owned by China. Same story in Africa with a lot of minerals. Bottom line is that the Chinese didn’t invade, they just bought. We are seeing a new empire in the making, not Russia, but China. This war is only a blip in terms of the Chinese march. But the Russians are a big aid. They are expendable, in terms of the real game.
    Putin for all of his guile is only a pawn.

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    Mute Hugh Morris
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:14 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: what will the EU do without their plywood guns and tea bullets

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    Mute Eric McTible
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:16 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: that’s pedantic not podantic btw !!

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    Mute Ian Byrne
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:18 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: I did ‘like’ your comment… but Lyons tea does not come from China and Plywood is not a raw material.

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:19 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: Russia has more reason to fear China than it does the west.

    China dwarves Russia, economically and now militarily. Parts of eastern Russia were originally and still are ethnically Chinese. The Russian side of the border with China is sparse and the Chinese side is densely populated. A border incursion by China into eastern Russia could be justified by the Chinese using the same excuses Russia used to invade Ukraine.

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    Mute Rory Phelan
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:21 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: woah there steady on! @Diaspora’d was making a pretty valid point. China has countries in Africa, Central and South America, etc. absolutely pillaged for raw materials.
    I don’t think most of the products you mention are raw materials. Maybe tea is, as long as it is unprocessed. Trees or wood would be a raw material used to make plywood. Not sure on petroleum to be honest. Also “tech products” are certainly not raw materials.
    Finally; sorry to be pedantic but it is pEdantic, not pOdantic. Chill… It’s only Monday!

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    Mute DERRY1973
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:45 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: since when did plywood become a raw material. Lol

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:52 PM

    @Laura McCarthy: Agree, Empires fall from the inside. It is still rankles the U.S. on their perceived view on how they lost China. They backed a despot dictator ,like they did in Iran.

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    Mute Locutus Of Borg
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    Mar 15th 2022, 12:59 AM

    @Laura McCarthy: yea, plywood. A lot of good that is. At least form a cogent reply

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    Mute Joe Kelly
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    Mar 15th 2022, 2:13 AM

    @Diaspora’d: 100% Right!

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    Mute Peter Sutton Fitzgibbon
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    Mar 15th 2022, 6:53 AM

    @Laura McCarthy: I don’t agree, commerce is a two way street, sellers need buyers and vica versa. China is so far ahead of Russia economically, don’t forget apparently Russian economy no bigger than Spain! Don’t think China will involve itself in its little northern bully. After all China’s economic musical is underpinned by trade with the West.

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    Mute Peter Sutton Fitzgibbon
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    Mar 15th 2022, 6:55 AM

    @Laura McCarthy: musical should read miracle! Ha ha

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    Mute UK Hurling Bloke
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    Mar 15th 2022, 8:35 AM

    @Laura McCarthy: better making a bit of an effort to be correct then in both your “facts” and writing…

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    Mute Terry Tibbs
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:34 PM

    is it time to move to a deserted island?

    61
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    Mute Badger the witness
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    Mar 15th 2022, 7:40 AM

    China should cut all ties with Russia, and in return, the US should cut all ties with Israel. Nothing but hypoc(r)isy from the US.

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Mar 14th 2022, 11:53 PM

    I read somewhere over the weekend (think it was here, but I can’t find the article) that China are trying to distance themselves from Russia, due to reports of some countries are beginning to cancel orders for items from China such as tech components and the like, because of the fact the world lumps them together with Russia due to their ideologies. Now I’m not trying to defend the Chinese government, but I would more likely believe what the US is reporting, if it did not come from the US, due to the simple fact that I think the US is trying to tar both countries with one brush, when in reality the Chinese are just watching while the Russians are being the aggressors. By all means, when China does wrong, pull them on it, but don’t make stuff up to take advantage of a bad situation

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    Mute Rob Dowling
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    Mar 15th 2022, 12:12 AM

    @Joe_X: The US and Europe are desperate for Putin to fail and, indeed, soon fall from power. For good reason. However it is now clear to the US and Europe that if China, India, Iran, Pakistan, all of South America and all of Africa don’t join in the hardcore Russia sanctions then the Chinese in particular could buy stakes in Gasprom, Rosneft, etc and finance the building of lots of new gas pipelines to China by 2027, the year the EU unintended to stop buying Russian gas. Likewise tech – if Russia bans US tech China has equivalent alternatives. China banned Visa and Mastrcard years ago, they use WePay and AliPay. These systems can be customised for Russian consumers and hey presto, Russia is back on its feet thanks to China.

    Hence 7 hours of “intense” US-China talks today in Rome.

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Mar 15th 2022, 1:46 AM

    @Rob Dowling: and that is just business. Something the Chinese, Russians, Americans Europeans and every one else on the planet has been engaging in for thousands of years. But if the Chinese start losing business due to a percieved closeness to Russia, then politics takes over, and Putin will discover that all those talks that he and Xi had last month about “freindship without limits” is just that: talk, and his imagined support from China will disappear. No, my issue is how the US is using a bad situation to tarnish the image of a country that is not involved in the current hostlilties, just because they share a common ideology with the aggressors, possibly even making the current situation worse.

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    Mute Dave Wave
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    Mar 15th 2022, 9:10 AM

    @Joe_X: Ideology is a fundamental part of the entire conflict. The west will be forced ro accept china’s way of doing business which can already be seen. I know it’s in vogue to hate the west but European amd the US are safe countries for their citizens with the rule of law still in place. China and evidently Russia too do not have the same values. We should absolutely be worried about China gaining any more influence, they are like a child playing on the worls stage.

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    Mute Willie Penwright
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    Mar 15th 2022, 9:38 AM

    @Rob Dowling: Too true. The ‘West’, that is, the USA and the EU, haven’t realised that they are no longer the world and that the countries you mentioned are no longer looking to the old powers but to the new ones.

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    Mute Hugh Morris
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    Mar 14th 2022, 10:32 PM

    What could go wrong?!

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    Mute Stephen Murphy
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    Mar 15th 2022, 12:02 AM

    @Hugh Morris: So the US and Nato can do what ever the Fk they like but China and Russia can’t join forces? go F off

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Mar 15th 2022, 1:19 AM

    @Stephen Murphy: do you want them to join forces? Remember , one of them is currently involved in active hostilities with a neighbouring nation…and they are the ones that started it!

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    Mute John O Mahony
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    Mar 15th 2022, 4:41 PM

    Some man to critise others when themselves along with Britain and isreal are nothing but heavily armed bullies

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