blinken asia trip

Blinken halts Asia trip after Covid case in traveling party

KUALA LUMPUR — Secretary of State Antony Blinken cut his Southeast Asia visit short Wednesday due to a Covid case in his traveling party, an official said, in an abrupt halt to a trip aimed at boosting ties in a region where China's influence has grown.

Blinken was due to hold meetings in Thailand on Thursday before making the return to Washington, and the decision was taken in light of a positive case among the traveling press corps, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Blinken and senior officials had tested negative on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, when the positive case was confirmed, Price said, and Blinken had called his Thai counterpart to express his deep regret.

"He explained that in order to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 and to prioritize the health and safety of the U.S. traveling party and those they would otherwise come into contact with, the secretary would be returning to Washington D.C. out of an abundance of caution," Price said in a statement.

The halt to the trip will be a setback for the United States, which has sought to shore up ties with a region that had become uncertain about U.S. commitment after a period of perceived neglect under former President Donald Trump.

China's influence has expanded in Southeast Asia in recent years, with Beijing pressing deeper trade and integration and major infrastructure projects, despite tensions with several countries in the South China Sea.

In an address to a university in Indonesia on Tuesday, Blinken laid out a U.S. strategy for the Indo-Pacific that sought to boost investment and economic ties and offer infrastructure commitments and closer ties in defense and diplomacy, as well as a strengthening of treaty alliances and partnerships.

The individual who tested positive was self-isolating and had tested negative in Jakarta a day earlier, Price said. Blinken and senior staff have also been tested on all stops of his international tour.

Blinken gave a joint news conference on Wednesday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

A spokesperson for Malaysia's foreign ministry earlier said it was informed of the Covid case by the U.S. embassy early on Wednesday and the individual had been immediately quarantined.

"The person was not involved and has not participated in any of Secretary Blinken's programs in Kuala Lumpur," the spokesperson said.

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Blinken ends Southeast Asia trip early after journalist tests positive for COVID-19

By Melissa Quinn

December 15, 2021 / 8:42 AM EST / CBS News

Washington — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is cutting short a three-country swing through Southeast Asia after a member of the press traveling with the secretary tested positive for COVID-19, the State Department said Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken's delegation learned of the positive COVID-19 test through routine PCR testing on Wednesday morning upon arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The person, an unidentified journalist traveling with Blinken, tested negative during a previous stop in Jakarta and will remain in isolation.

The secretary of state and senior staff all tested negative for COVID-19 after getting tested in Kuala Lumpur, Price said.

The U.S. embassy in Malaysia said the member of Blinken's traveling party who tested positive was not involved and did not participate in the secretary's activities in Kuala Lumpur.

In a separate statement, Price said Blinken spoke with Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and "expressed his deep regret to the foreign minister that he would not be able to visit Bangkok this week" in an effort to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. The secretary will be returning to Washington "out of an abundance of caution," Price said.

"The secretary extended an invitation for the foreign minister to visit Washington, D.C. at the earliest opportunity and noted that he looked forward to traveling to Thailand as soon as possible," Price said. "They affirmed that they would use the upcoming engagements to further deepen the U.S.-Thai alliance."

Blinken departed Washington on December 9 to attend a Group of 7 meeting in the United Kingdom and then traveled to Southeast Asia to meet with officials in Indonesia and Malaysia. He was poised to end his trip with visits to Thailand and Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was due to meet with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral John Aquilino on Friday, though those stops were scrapped. 

Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.

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Blinken ends Southeast Asia trip early after reporter traveling with him tests positive for COVID-19

• Blinken ended a trip to Southeast Asia early after a reporter traveling with him tested positive for COVID-19.
• The top US diplomat skipped a visit to Thailand after traveling to the UK, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
• Blinken and senior staff tested negative on Tuesday, the State Department said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday abruptly ended a trip to Southeast Asia after a reporter traveling with him tested positive for COVID-19, the State Department said.

"We learned this morning, through our routine PCR testing, that a member of our traveling press pool tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in statement, per The Washington Post. Blinken and senior staff tested negative on Tuesday, Price said.

The reporter will remain in quarantine for at least 10 days before returning to the US. 

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"The individual who tested positive will remain in isolation, and we will continue to adhere to and go beyond CDC guidance, including with our rigorous testing protocol, for the remaining traveling party," Price said. 

Instead of making a scheduled visit to Thailand on Thursday, the top US diplomat headed back to the US after traveling to the UK, Indonesia, and Malaysia in recent days. In a separate statement , Price said that Blinken "expressed his deep regret" to the foreign minister of Thailand that he would not be able to make it to Bangkok. 

"The Secretary extended an invitation for the Foreign Minister to visit Washington, D.C. at the earliest opportunity and noted that he looked forward to traveling to Thailand as soon as possible," Price added. 

Blinken's shortened trip comes amid rising concerns over the Omicron variant, which was first detected in the US in mid-November. 

"Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing on Tuesday, per CNN. "We're concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild. Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril." 

"Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems," Tedros added, underscoring that 77 countries have reported cases of the variant. 

The CDC, which recently reported that Omicron accounts for 3% of US cases, is urging people to get vaccinated or a booster as soon as possible.

Watch: 6 times Trump contradicted public officials about the coronavirus pandemic

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Secretary Blinken talked economy, security and AI during trip to China

Kai McNamee

Ashley Brown

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China's leader Xi Jinping. Washington and Beijing are engaging in talks over issues of economic development, global security, AI and more.

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G7 talks tough on Ukraine, Taiwan and Korea during Blinken's Asia trip

UPDATED AT 07:34 a.m. ET on 2023-04-17.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Japan where he, together with other foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations, discussed a common approach to the war in Ukraine Monday, confirming  “ that they remain committed to intensifying, fully coordinating and enforcing sanctions against Russia, as well as to continuing strong support for Ukraine,” according to a Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry statement.

The statement was in line with the goals of the Biden administration, which are to shore up support for Ukraine and to ensure the continued provision of military assistance to Kyiv, as well as to ramp up punishment against Russia through economic and financial sanctions, a senior official from Blinken's delegation told the Associated Press ahead of the meeting.

Earlier G7 ministers vowed to take a tougher stance on China’s threats to Taiwan, and North Korea’s missile tests.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Financial Times reported that China was refusing to let Blinken visit Beijing over concerns that the FBI will release the results of an investigation into the suspected Chinese spy balloon downed in February.

The FT quoted four people familiar with the matter as saying that “China had told the U.S. it was not prepared to reschedule a trip that Blinken cancelled in February while it remains unclear what the administration of President Joe Biden will do with the report.”

It is unclear when the trip would be rescheduled.

The U.S. military shot the Chinese balloon down over concerns that it was spying on U.S. military installations but China insisted that it was a weather balloon blown off course due to “force majeure.” 

The incident led to Blinken abruptly canceling his ties-mending trip to Beijing, during which he was expected to call on Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The relationship between Washington and Beijing has been strained in the last few years over issues such as China’s threats to Taiwan and security concerns in the Indo-Pacific.

Upgrading U.S.-Vietnam partnership

Antony Blinken arrived at Karuizawa in Nagano prefecture in central Japan on Sunday after a visit to Vietnam to promote strategic ties with the communist country.

This was Blinken’s first visit to Hanoi as U.S. Secretary of State.

The U.S. is building a U.S.$1.2 billion compound in Hanoi, one of its largest and most expensive embassies in the world.

During his visit, Blinken met with Vietnam’s most senior officials, including the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, to discuss “the great possibilities that lie ahead in the U.S.-Vietnam partnership,” the secretary of state wrote on Twitter .

Two weeks before Blinken’s visit, Trong and Biden had a phone conversation during which the two leaders agreed to “promote and deepen bilateral ties,” according to Vietnamese media.

Former enemies Hanoi and Washington normalized their diplomatic relationship in 1995 and in 2013 established a so-called "comprehensive partnership" to promote cooperation in all sectors including the economy, culture exchange and security.

Vietnam’s foreign relations are benchmarked by three levels of partnerships: comprehensive, strategic and comprehensive strategic.

Only four countries in the world belong to the top tier of comprehensive strategic partners: China, Russia, India and South Korea.

Vietnam has strategic partnerships with 16 nations including some U.S. allies such as Japan, Singapore and Australia.

U.S. officials have been hinting at upgrading the ties to the next level strategic partnership which offers deeper cooperation, especially in security and defense, amid new geopolitical challenges posed by an increasingly assertive China.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the U.S. secretary of state on Saturday in Hanoi that the consensus reached amongst the  Vietnamese leadership is to “further elevate the bilateral partnership to a new height” adding that “relevant government agencies have been tasked with looking into the process.”

Vietnam analysts such as Carl Thayer from the University of New South Wales in Australia said that an upgrade of Vietnam-U.S. relationship to strategic partnership within this year is possible, despite concerns that it would antagonize Beijing.

The U.S. is currently the largest export market and the second-largest commercial partner for Vietnam.

Hanoi aims to benefit across the board from U.S. assistance, especially in trade, science and technology, Thayer told Radio Free Asia. 

Vietnam as one of the South China Sea claimants has been embroiled in territorial disputes with China and could benefit from greater cooperation in maritime security.

In exchange, “the U.S. would benefit indirectly by assisting Vietnam in capacity-building to address maritime security issues in the South China Sea to strengthen a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Thayer.

“The U.S. is trying to mobilize and sustain an international coalition to oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine and to deter China from using force against Taiwan and intimidation of South China Sea littoral states,” the Canberra-based political analyst said.

Hanoi’s priority

Some other analysts, such as Bill Hayton from the British think tank Chatham House, said that there might have been a miscalculation on the U.S.’s part.

“Washington is now taking itself for a massive ride in its misunderstanding of what Vietnam wants from the bilateral relationship,” Hayton said.

“All the Communist Party of Vietnam wants is regime security. It has no interest in confronting China,” the author of “A Brief History of Vietnam” said.

Just before Blinken landed in Hanoi, a dissident blogger was sentenced to six years in prison for “spreading anti-state propaganda.”

Nguyen Lan Thang was also a contributor to Radio Free Asia.

The U.S. State Department condemned the sentence and urged the Vietnamese government to “immediately release and drop all charges against Nguyen Lan Thang and other individuals who remain in detention for peacefully exercising and promoting human rights."

“Vietnam is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific, and that partnership can only reach its full potential if the government of Vietnam takes concerted steps to meet its obligations and commitments under international law and improve its human rights record,” a State Department spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

Yet two days later, friends of another blogger, Thai Van Duong, alleged that he was kidnapped by Vietnamese agents and transferred back to Vietnam. Thai was in Bangkok where he was waiting for his political refugee application to be vetted by UNHCR. 

“That was clearly a message from the Ministry of Public Security, demonstrating its power in the face of the United States,” said Bill Hayton.

“Washington is so keen to establish a strategic partnership with Vietnam that the Vietnamese security establishment thinks it will ignore those events,” he added.

Story has been updated to include a statement by Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Edited by Mike Firn.

• Blinken’s trip to Vietnam may result in possible upgrade for US-Vietnam ties
• Jailed Vietnamese blogger’s wife disagrees with guilty verdict, thanks supporters
• Vietnam court sentences blogger to 6 years in prison
• US, Vietnam raise relations to highest level

• New rules let China's state security police check people's devices
• Taiwanese star forced to publicly support 'one China' policy
• Hundreds of Myanmar junta troops surrender near Bangladesh border
• Closed dam in Vietnam is leading to dry river beds in Cambodia
• Myanmar’s ban on overseas male workers worsens Thai labor shortage

• Former senior Ho Chi Minh City official to be disciplined

Blinken, in Kyiv, vows unwavering US support as Russian attacks intensify

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Zelenskiy visits embattled kharkiv region as russian pressure mounts in east.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Thursday to boost morale and reinforce Ukraine's troops in the region where Russian forces are trying to press their new offensive beyond the border areas.

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Kyiv in a show of support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government amid renewed Russian advances in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

Speaking during a meeting with Zelenskyy, Blinken said more US assistance was on its way and some of it had already arrived. He is the first senior US official to visit Ukraine since Congress approved a $61bn military aid package last month.

“That’s going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield,” said Blinken.

Zelenskyy described US aid as crucial to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia. He told Blinken that Ukraine needs two US-made Patriot missile systems for the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

The visit follows an advance by Russia north of the city of Kharkiv , where troops opened a new front on Friday and have since seized control of about 110 sq km of territory. Ukrainian officials have also warned of a possible Russian cross-border offensive in the Sumy or Chernihiv regions in the north of the country.

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Defence officials and analysts in Kyiv believe Russian troops are trying to stretch Ukrainian resources in other frontline areas , especially in the eastern Donetsk region, before the bulk of the delayed US aid arrives.

In its Tuesday morning briefing, Ukraine’s general staff admitted it had made positional changes and Russia had “partial” successes in a few areas. 

It said that Ukrainian forces had lost the village of Lukyantsi in Kharkiv and edged forward in two places in Donetsk near Ocheretyne and Kurakhove. 

According to the Ukrainian open-source group Deepstate, Russia occupied two villages and part of the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region on Monday. But it does not appear to have broken through Ukraine’s defensive lines in the north of the region.

Nevertheless, the advance could soon put Kharkiv city once again within artillery range of Russian forces.

In his evening address on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had sent reinforcements to the Kharkiv region but would not forget about the rest of the front.

“We understand the enemy’s actions and their plan to divert our forces,” he said. “Of course, we do not leave the Donetsk direction without the necessary support and supplies. Our task is crystal clear: to thwart Russia’s attempt to expand the war.”

Kyrylo Budanov , Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, told Ukraine’s national TV news on Tuesday that the reinforcements were stabilising the line in Kharkiv. Budanov said the situation was not “catastrophic” but Ukrainian forces would need to intensify the fighting in order to push Russian troops back across the border.  Budanov said Russia was planning a similar operation in Sumy region, to the west of its current Kharkiv offensive. He said it had amassed forces on the border with Sumy but “the situation has not yet allowed them to [begin] active actions”.

According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, six settlements in Chernihiv were shelled and 32 in Sumy on Monday.

Russia regularly sends in reconnaissance groups to attack Ukrainian positions in Sumy region but on Monday, its governor, Volodymyr Artyukh, announced a partial, precautionary evacuation of the border areas near Bilopillia and Vorozhba.

“This evacuation is not compulsory, it is a precautionary, voluntary measure . . . where the number of shelling incidents has increased significantly,” said Artyukh.

Ukraine’s general staff said in a briefing on Monday evening that its forces had retreated to reduce casualties around Lyman in northern Donetsk and west of Avdiivka in the south of the region.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, added that Russia had “eventually retreated” in areas of the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia having suffered losses and that Ukraine’s front lines were “holding”.

During a White House briefing on Monday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington was trying to get its aid to Ukraine as soon as possible in light of the “hole” created by congressional debate over the package.

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Antony Blinken’s rock performance in Kyiv bar divides opinion in Ukraine

US secretary of state took to stage with his guitar to perform Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World

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It was an unexpected moment at the end of a long day in Kyiv for Antony Blinken , after numerous high-level meetings and serious pronouncements promising the speedy delivery of US military aid. The secretary of state picked up a guitar and performed a rendition of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World with a Ukrainian rock band.

The images, quickly shared on social media, split opinion in Ukraine , with the performance one of the main topics of discussion in Kyiv on Wednesday. Some hailed Blinken’s turn as a welcome gesture of support, while others questioned the optics of performing in a bar while the situation at the front is so tense.

Blinken took to the stage at Barman Dictat, a well-known speakeasy-style bar in central Kyiv hidden in a basement inside a courtyard, and joined the Ukrainian band 19.99.

“Your soldiers, your citizens – particularly in the north-east, in Kharkiv – are suffering tremendously,” Blinken said before playing. “But they need to know, you need to know, the United States is with you, so much of the world is with you and they’re fighting not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you, too.”

The band were told before the event that they would be performing with Neil Young, said one member, but were asked to keep it a secret. It was only at the last minute that they realised their guest member would be the secretary of state.

“He was connecting with eyes, with our band leader, with me … It was our first performance on stage but it feels like we were a band for two years,” the guitarist Arsen Gorbach told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday.

Gorbach said the choice of song had come from Blinken, and described the performance as “a very important point of Ukrainian history and cultural history”.

Others were not so sure, with a squall of criticism in some quarters about the appropriateness of playing in a bar while the situation at the frontline has deteriorated in recent days.

A Russian offensive around Kharkiv region has compounded an already tense situation, with Ukrainian troops retreating from several villages, and intense fighting around the town of Vovchansk. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, cancelled a visit to Spain later this week, apparently to deal with the situation at home.

“Kharkiv region is being wiped from the Earth, people are leaving their homes, Kharkiv is under strike from air bombs. Sumy region is preparing, and a US top official is singing songs in a Kyiv bar,” wrote the head of one Ukrainian NGO on Facebook.

“So many people die every day because we don’t have enough weapons and enough support from our allies … Such concerts are simply tactless and inappropriate,” Oleh Symoroz, a Ukrainian veteran who lost both his legs in combat, wrote on X. “I advise the secretary of state to visit a military cemetery not a bar.”

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Not everyone agreed, however. “Russia wants us to stop living and stop having fun,” said Polina, a 26-year-old working in business in Kyiv. “The war is everywhere, but it doesn’t mean you can’t go to a bar. I feel thankful he even came to Kyiv and I thought it was great.”

The song, written in 1989 shortly before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, has become an anthem of overcoming repression, although the lyrics are far from an ode to the US and its mission to spread democracy.

“We got a thousand points of light / For the homeless man / We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand,” runs one verse.

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What to Know About the Summit Between Putin and Xi in China

China’s backing will be crucial to President Vladimir V. Putin as he intensifies his offensive in Ukraine. But his host, Xi Jinping, has other competing priorities.

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By David Pierson

When China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, hosts President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this week, the two leaders are expected to present a united front. But they have different agendas.

Mr. Putin is trying to escalate his war in Ukraine before Ukrainian forces can receive a replenishment of arms from the United States, and probably wants to know he can rely on China. Mr. Xi will seek to bolster his strategic partner and “old friend,” but he is also under pressure to avoid further alienating the West over his support for Russia.

Those priorities are the backdrop of Mr. Putin’s two-day state visit, which began in Beijing on Thursday and will include a trip to the northeastern city of Harbin, where a China-Russia trade fair is being held.

Mr. Putin will most likely seek more help from Beijing, which has provided a lifeline to the Kremlin ever since Western sanctions were imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. China purchases huge quantities of Russian oil and provides technologies that help Moscow withstand its economic isolation and sustain its war machine.

Mr. Xi considers Russia an important counterweight in China’s rivalry with the United States, but he risks alienating Europe, a key trading partner, at a time when China is relying on exports to revive its sluggish economy.

Here is what to know about the summit.

A Personal Relationship and a Shared Vision

The visit is Mr. Putin’s first foreign trip since winning his fifth presidential election in March. Mr. Xi showed the same respect to Mr. Putin when he made Russia his first foreign trip after securing his norm-shattering third term as China’s president in March 2023.

Mr. Xi has met with Mr. Putin over 40 times, including virtually, which is more than any other leader. The two men have cast their relationship as deeply personal by exchanging birthday greetings and referring to each other as “old” and “dear” friends.

In Mr. Putin, Mr. Xi sees a like-minded autocratic leader who blames the United States for holding back his country’s rise. The two leaders declared a “no limits” partnership weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, to push back against what they consider American hegemony.

Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin also view themselves as architects of a new world order free of U.S. interference. The two leaders have promoted multilateral groupings of developing countries like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, so named because it includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as a way to counterbalance the West.

Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin will most likely try to project strength and solidarity during their summit to demonstrate to other countries that there is an alternative to the U.S.-led global system.

“Russia-China relations have reached an all-time high, and even in the face of severe international situations, relations between the two countries continue to strengthen,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with Chinese state media published on Wednesday.

What Putin Wants

China has vowed not to provide lethal weapons to Russia, but the United States and Western analysts say China has been aiding Russia with satellite intelligence and fighter jet parts as well as supplying components with both civilian and military uses, such as microchips, machine tools, optical devices, electronic sensors and telecommunications gear.

Mr. Putin will most likely want any such supply of parts and equipment to continue, to help sustain his military’s advances as he intensifies the war effort.

Russian forces opened a new line of attack in recent days near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukraine’s forces are stretched thin and running short on weapons, but billions of dollars’ worth of arms from the United States are expected to trickle in soon.

Mr. Putin is also expected to seek more trade and business deals and is traveling with a large delegation. Included are five deputy prime ministers; the heads of Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear power company, and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency; as well as Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister; Maksim Reshetnikov, the economy minister; and Andrei R. Belousov, an economist who was named the new defense minister this week.

“The people involved reflect the priorities of both sides,” said Elizabeth Wishnick, a senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia who studies Chinese foreign policy.

Mr. Belousov has experience working with China, having previously been co-chair of the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission on Investment Cooperation, which was founded in 2014 to promote more trade between the two countries.

And among the deputy prime ministers traveling with Mr. Putin is Alexander Novak, a key official for Russian oil and gas, including the development of the Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline. Mr. Putin has long sought to cement an agreement on the project, which would redirect Russian gas supplies that had gone to Europe toward China instead.

It is unclear whether Mr. Xi is interested in the pipeline. Analysts say the Chinese leader could be reluctant because it would travel through a third country, Mongolia, and that it could expose China to potential secondary sanctions and leave it even more reliant on Russia for energy.

Xi’s Strategic Straddle

Mr. Xi has tried to align with Russia and steady ties with the West at the same time to help his ailing economy, an approach that some call a strategic straddle.

China casts itself as neutral on the war in Ukraine and as a proponent of peace. It has offered a vague, 12-point plan for a political settlement of the war and sent an envoy to conduct shuttle diplomacy in Europe.

Western countries have dismissed China’s efforts because they do not call for a withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. China also sides with Russia by blaming the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for creating the tensions that led to Moscow’s invasion.

Mr. Xi’s refusal to condemn the Kremlin’s war has ultimately worsened China’s relations with the West, and it has led to Europe’s growing alignment with the United States on security issues. This makes China’s efforts to head off a trade war with the European Union — over exports of Chinese electric vehicles and market access for European companies — harder for Mr. Xi.

Tensions are also rising with the United States, testing a tentative détente struck by President Biden and Mr. Xi in November. The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a sharp increase in tariffs on an array of Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors and advanced batteries.

During a visit to Beijing last month, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned that the United States would blacklist Chinese banks aiding Russia’s war effort. Russian media reported earlier in the year that Chinese financial institutions had already begun scaling back transactions with Russian firms over concerns about secondary sanctions. Analysts say the change most likely contributed to the drop in year-on-year trade between Russia and China in March, the first such decline since January 2021, according to Chinese customs data.

David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about David Pierson

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

With his army making advances in Ukraine and his political grip tightened at home, President Vladimir Putin of Russia arrived in Beijing in search of another win : more support from his “dear friend,” Xi Jinping.

The Biden administration is increasingly concerned that Putin is gathering enough momentum  to change the trajectory of the war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to reassure Ukrainians  that they could weather an ominous new Russian offensive and count on long-term support from the United States and its European allies.

World’s Nuclear Inspector: Rafael Grossi took over the International Atomic Energy Agency five years ago at what now seems like a far less fraught moment. With atomic fears everywhere, the inspector is edging toward mediator .

Frozen Russian Assets: As much as $300 billion in frozen Russian assets is piling up profits and interest income by the day. Now, Ukraine’s allies are considering how to use those gains to aid Kyiv .

Rebuilding Ukrainian Villages: The people of the Kherson region have slowly rebuilt their livelihoods since Ukraine’s military forced out Russian troops. Now they are bracing for another Russian attack .

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .