China’s top envoy to Washington pledged his country “will do everything” to de-escalate the war in Ukraine and said its relationship with Russia is “not part of the problem.” “There’s disinformation about China providing military assistance to Russia,” Qin said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. China isn’t sending “weapons and ammunitions to any party,” he said. “We will do everything to disescalate the crisis.” (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-20/china-will-work-to-de-escalate-war-in-ukraine-ambassador-says) Ambassador Qin Gang’s comments follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping of “implications and consequences” should China support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Xi assured Biden that his country didn’t want the war, according to Chinese readouts of the video call on Friday. It’s the latest evidence of China’s efforts to balance its relationships with the U.S. and Russia as the Biden administration seeks to step up international pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. While China has “a lot of common interests” with Russia, that “is not a liability,” Qin said. “China is part of the solution, it’s not part of the problem.” He cited Xi’s phone call with Putin shortly after the Russian invasion in February during which China said its leader urged Putin to negotiate with Ukraine.
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