China Sends Top Diplomat to Russia Ahead of Ukraine War Anniversary

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is seen on large screens as he holds a press conference at the Media Center in Beijing on March 7, 2022. Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images

Communist China is sending its top diplomat to Russia ahead of the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine and amid mounting fears that the Chinese regime will provide Russia with weapons for its war.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending Wang Yi, director of the regime’s Foreign Affairs Commission, to Moscow, where it is rumored Wang may even meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The visit comes just days after the United States announced that it was concerned the CCP may be preparing to provide weapons to Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Wang on Feb. 18, on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich, where he warned Wang of consequences should the CCP provide materiel support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other.

CCP foreign affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the CCP would speak to Russia about a political settlement for the war but did not explicitly rule out providing weapons to Russia.

Wang Wenbin declined to say what Wang Yi would discuss with Russian authorities, but said the CCP aimed to avoid a nuclear war.

Despite the claim, both Russia and China are seeking to modernize and expand their nuclear arsenals, and Russia is deploying its nuclear forces in a posture unseen since the Cold War.

In a nationally televised speech on Feb. 21, Putin announced that Russia would unilaterally suspend its involvement in the New START agreement, which limited the number of active warheads both it and the United States could deploy, and the types of launchers they could maintain.

This means that Russia can freely expand and modernize its nuclear arsenal, which is already the largest in the world.

Likewise, Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to the Baltic Sea for the first time since the Cold War, a move that could be seen as an escalation in the already tense competition with the United States and its NATO partners.

The situation presents a dire strategic outlook for the United States, which one U.S. general has called an “epic threat,” as the United States has never before had to deter two near-peer nuclear adversaries simultaneously.

The CCP and the Kremlin announced a “no limits” partnership last year, up to and including strategic cooperation.

Reuters contributed to this report.