The chancellor of Germany has recently turned up the pressure on China.
In an interview with CNN that aired on March 5, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporter Fareed Zakaria that were Beijing to break sanctions and provide Moscow with weapons, it would be met with “consequences.”
But Scholz seemed convinced that China will refrain from selling Russia weapons and reiterated this upon returning to Germany.
“We all agree that there must be no weapons deliveries, and the Chinese government has stated that it wouldn’t deliver any. That is what we are demanding and we are watching it,” Scholz said during a press conference.
Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission who met with Scholz shortly after his visit to the U.S., similarly spoke with cautious optimism at the same press conference.
When asked whether China might sell weapons to Russia, Von der Leyen replied that “we have no evidence for this so far, but we must observe it every day,” per The Washington Post.
Despite not having elaborated on what he meant by “consequences” during his CNN interview, Scholz was likely referring to economic sanctions. Considering that China is Germany’s largest trading partner, this could hurt.
Scholz’s comments were made just two days after he met with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C.
U.S. officials remain concerned that China might actually begin helping Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, as The Dallas Express reported. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has even claimed to have information that China was considering selling weapons to Russia, according to the WSJ.
Since the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapon systems and tanks. Russia, on the other hand, has been receiving drones from Iran.
As the conflict enters its second year and appears to be at a stalemate, many wonder how much longer it will go on.
For his part, Scholz called on China to use its influence to encourage Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, per AP News.
Recently, China has been angling itself as a potential mediator between Russia and Ukraine, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months with the professed intentions of dissuading the use of nuclear weapons and encouraging peace, per The Wall Street Journal.