Beijing is “picking a side” and can’t claim to be neutral any more, the US ambassador to NATO tells POLITICO.
China is helping Russia meet its war goals in Ukraine by continuing to sell supplies such as drone technology and gunpowder ingredients to Moscow, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO said in an interview.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] cannot claim to be entirely neutral in this case, [and] they are in fact picking a side,” Julianne Smith told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I think when the PRC tries to portray itself as neutral, when it comes to this war, we don’t buy it.”
Smith said the United States was “increasingly seeing materiel support” from China to Russia, adding that this equipment — which can have both civilian and military uses — had played a critical role in helping Moscow achieve some of its aims against Ukraine.
It would be so amazingly fantastic if the West had any moral credibility left, because it is true that in the case of Ukraine, the West is actually preaching the right thing: a rules based international order, where nations have the right to self determination and other countries don’t get to arbitrarily decide whether you have the right to exist. Like, exactly what Palestinians need.
If there is one thing the unwavering support for the Israeli Genocide in Gaza from the likes of the US, UK and Germany has done was completelly burn their moral credibility.
Nobody outside a very small political circle jerk of hard neolibs and fascists (applauded by their mindless tribalist useful idiots) around the US pays any attention to any criticism of other nations by this US Administration.
Further, I suspect this doesn’t just apply in the “Global South” but also in most of Europe (as both the Brits and the Germans are atypical, though for different reasons, and there are a lot of europeans who, for some “strange reason” have an instinctive hate of larger more powerfull nations murdering people in weaker nations).
Way to blow up your soft power to help out a bunch of murderous radical Fascists in a Middle Eastern Theocracy commiting Genocide along etnic lines.
I think many of us paying attention over the long term have realized that the US pretty much never had the right to even claim moral credibility. Whether evidenced by our treatment of our own citizens or our constant involvement in other countries we have corporate business “interests” with. We constantly destabilize and overthrow other countries for our corporate “masters.”
I think honest people want to believe the best of others, and the US under Biden got a lot of “he’s not the same as the others” goodwill up until the point he gave unwavering support to people that were mass murdering their neighbours in the most violent racist way possible, comparable only with the Nazis.
It’s pretty hard to come across as a Humanitarian or ever just “not a Racist” when you’re excusing a Genocide because the nation comitting it has a certain majority etnic makeup and that’s exactly were not just the US but the UK, Germany and to a lesser externt some European countries went.
Personally I wasn’t at all surprised by the US or the UK’s position but was about Germany. Clearly Germany’s “never again” wasn’t the Humanitarian version - “never again shall people be killed for their etnicity” - but the racist version - “never again shall our nation do this to Jews (not people in general but a very specific etnicity)” - which not only explains their “unwavering support for the Jewish Nation” but also the “strange” detail that the etnicity that was even more victimized by the Nazis - the Roma, aka Gypsies - post-War never received Germany’s unwavering support: guess some “etnics” never stopped being untermenschen.
Being from a Southern European country - Portugal - and having lived in The Netherlands, before all this I assumed that the Dutch tendency to “try and be fair to other people” was also shared by their “High German” speaking neighbours. I was wrong, so very incredibly wrong!
The difference is that Ukraine didn’t attack russia… Palestine would wipe Israel and every jew off the planet if they had the ability to. Not saying what Israel is doing is right, but acting like the other side is without fault is disingenuous.
Palestine would wipe Israel and every jew off the planet if they had the ability to.
Yea, that’s a super racist statement right there.
There’s a conflating the goals of Hamas with the goal of Palestinian people here. Just because the majority of Palestinians support Hamas doesn’t mean they all do.
And Palestine didn’t attack Israel. Israel never allowed for a Palestine. But a history of apartheid, check. History of land grabs and illegal settlements, check. History of dehumanizing an entire people, check.
We get it, you are all for dehumanizing billions of people and refuse to address the genocide, murder of women and children, mass graves, literally creating famine, cutting off food and water, happening right here and now, right in front of you. Because these are not people to you. Instead you want to direct people to some imaginary hypothetical of what someone ‘would do’.
Hamas is the gov in Palestine. This is like saying the usa didn’t attack Afghanistan or Iraq…just our gov did.
And no where have I said that what Israel is doing is right, but I’m not under some delusional ignorance that hamas wouldn’t happily wipe Israel off the map if it had the means.
That’s the difference between understanding what Islamic regimes create and thinking if no one touched them they magically would be peaceful.
Ignoring the level of violence that is brought on by Islamic regimes is naive. You’re so afraid of calling out their bigotry and violence that you’re willing to give them a pass. You seem to just want to ignore the level of bigotry that is done in the name of that religion.
China gave a solid 1.5 year buffer because they too saw Russia fumbling and probably expected NATO to finish the job when the war started.
Instead they just witnessed 2 years of profiteering on 90s surplus military technology and hindering Ukraine’s ability to fight.
Now that Russia has proved its half stable and not going anywhere, China will happily sell whatever to them as long as the profit is stable.
Although its also funny how both sides are using a ton of DJI drones which China “allegedly” stopped selling.
China’s accurately balancing it’s profits. It can sell much more products to it’s primary markets if it gets resources from Russia and get some bonus on also selling sanctioned or illegal stuff with a huge margin. Can NATO or other structure condition it to back off a little? Probably yes since a lot of banks started to slow down or deny processing payments from russian corporations. Can it stop it completely? Probably not, but with every new barrier, the russian economy suffers from underdelivery and overpaying for a banal stuff.
NATO economies are probably much more profitable for China. If NATO wanted to get serious about supporting Ukraine we would be sanctioning not only Russia, but also countries that don’t sanction Russia. China and India would quickly change their policy on Russian trade.
And China trade is profitable for NATO countries. Is China not sanctioning Russia expensive enough, in terms of additionally needed support to Ukraine, to warrant the massive global fallout that such a move could have?
If you ask me such a move would be too principled for its own good. Everyone, literally everyone, is busy fucking Russia one way or the other right now for the simple reason that Russia now is a beggar, not a chooser. Are they sanctioning as hard no but in the end it still amounts to significant pressure and it’s the total impact, duration, and steadfastness that counts, not the symbolism.
Also China isn’t right-out helping Russia like NK does, if they did they’d be sending over tanks instead of literal golf carts.
Yeah China isn’t thinking economically here, they’re thinking geopolitically. The smart choice would’ve been to back Ukraine, which is in line with their positions on sovereignty, and then criticize the US on Palestine now from a moral high ground. It would’ve also created closer economic ties with the West, and cemented a rivalry status versus an adversary status.
Both China and Russia don’t seem to understand that the world order has changed. You don’t become a superpower or powerful nation by conquering land or being aggressive military. You have to achieve economic dominance, which China actually was doing rather successfully. Their antagonism has spurred economic development in other areas now.
That isn’t to say that military power is useless. But it’s more powerful when it’s used as soft power, not an actual conquering army.
In case the US has forgotten, China is selling key technology like drones to Ukraine, too. If that’s not staying neutral and not picking a side, I don’t know what is. The US wants China to pick the US side, not stay neutral. In fact, China currently has a trade deficit with Ukraine.
In February 2024, China exported $221M and imported $477M from Ukraine, resulting in a negative trade balance of $256M.
https://www.wsj.com/world/how-american-drones-failed-to-turn-the-tide-in-ukraine-b0ebbac3
Smith was speaking shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits China on Wednesday. He’s expected to warn Chinese officials not to provide aid to Russia.
Or else they’re going to get a very stern talking to.
