The Russian-Ukrainian war may spiral out of control

China’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Beijing is “very concerned” that the war in Ukraine could continue to escalate and “spin out of control”, with the conflict still raging after nearly a year.

Foreign Minister Chen Gang appeared to call out the United States for its massive support for Ukraine, urging “relevant countries to immediately stop adding fuel to the fire, stop blaming China, and stop shouting for ‘Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow’.”

Chen added that Beijing will “continue to promote peace talks” and “provide Chinese wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

As China sought to appear neutral in the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday accused Beijing of “considering aggressively” providing Russia with “lethal aid”.

“China is trying to have it both ways,” Blinken said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Publicly, they present themselves as a country fighting for peace in Ukraine. But privately, as I said, we’ve already seen over the past months the provision of non-lethal aid that goes directly to aiding and abetting the Russian war effort.”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned Sunday that there would be “consequences” if China made the “unfortunate decision” to send lethal aid to the Russians.

However, China responded to the accusations on Monday, stating that “it is the United States, not China, that pours weapons into the battlefield.”

“The United States is not in a position to tell China what it should do,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday. “We will never stand with finger pointing, or even coercion and pressure from the United States on our relations with Russia.”