West Warns China: Choose Us or Arm Russia

Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo warned that Chinese firms must choose between doing business with the U.S. and EU or supplying Russia with dual-use goods. He emphasized that sanctions and export controls would be employed to hold China accountable for aiding Russia's war efforts.

Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Friday that Washington and the European Union must deliver a message to China that its firms face a choice between doing business with U.S. and EU economies or equipping Russia with dual-use goods.

It had to be made clear that "Chinese firms can either do business in our economies or they can equip Russia's war machinery with dual-use goods. They can't continue to do both," he said on a visit to Berlin. "Let's make clear to Chinese companies that we are all prepared to use our sanctions and export controls to hold them accountable," he said.

The warning to Chinese firms comes as President Joe Biden's administration has stepped up messaging about China's support for Russia and issued an executive order in December that threatened sanctions on financial institutions helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions. Russia last year imported $5.2 billion worth of sensitive, dual-use goods - which can be used for both civil and military purposes - from China-based suppliers, Adeyemo said.

Adeyemo warned that failing to convince China to stop selling dual-use goods to Russia poses a significant threat to Europe's national security, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin was confident that he could challenge NATO. Many of the goods from coalition countries still being found in Russian military equipment are largely being transhipped through China, he said.

Adeyemo's warning to China comes after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Wednesday accused China's leadership of supporting Russia's war in Ukraine and warned that Beijing could face further sanctions in response from the United States and other NATO countries. On Tuesday, White House Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics Daleep Singh said the U.S. and its partners were prepared to use sanctions and export controls to prevent China-Russia trade that threatens their security amid the Ukraine war.