U.S. Officials Say China Is Now Considering Sending Russia Artillery Shells

China considers sending Russia artillery shells, U.S. officials say © Heidi Levine for The Washington Post   

Washington Post: China considers sending Russia artillery shells, U.S. officials say 

China is considering sending Russia lethal military aid in the form of artillery shells as President Vladimir Putin’s army rapidly depletes its supply of ammunition a year into his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. officials said, a prospect that has alarmed those in the Biden administration who believe Beijing has the ability to transform the war’s trajectory. 

There is no evidence that any weapons transfers have occurred, these officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. government’s assessment. But if China does move ahead, it would mark the first time Beijing has provided lethal aid in the conflict despite repeated warnings by the United States not to provide such support. It would also violate the spirit of a peace plan Chinese leaders proposed Friday. 

President Biden said Friday that he does not expect China to provide significant weapons assistance to Russia. 

 “I don’t anticipate — we haven’t seen it yet — but I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia,” he said in an interview with ABC News. When asked if any future support would cross a red line, Biden said that the United States “would respond.”  

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WNU Editor: A few days ago this blog commented on US concerns that China may send military equipment and ammunition to Russia to assist in their military operations in Ukraine, and I explained why these concerns were/are justified.

Bottom line. 

The West is currently not in a position to compete with China's manufacturing capacity, and if China should decide to supply Russia with equipment and munitions, Ukraine and its allies will lose what is now a war of attrition.

And it gets worse. 

Since that post a long time friend that I trust in China told me that if Beijing believes Russia will be defeated in Ukraine, they will intervene. According to him he believes the decision has been by the leadership that it is now in China's vital strategic interest that Russia does not lose in Ukraine, and it all stems from the belief that if Russia falls, China will be next. 

If this is all true .... and I believe it is .... this alliance between Russia and China (and I can say that it is an alliance right now) will be a game changer. The world's resource superpower in alliance with the world's manufacturing superpower will be a bloc that cannot be contained.

A prediction. 

This China - Russia alliance will be seen by future historians as President Biden's biggest foreign policy mistake if not disaster. That after almost 50 years of US efforts starting under President Nixon to make sure that such an alliance did not happen because of its geopolitical implications, within the past year the Biden administration did not only make it happen, but forced it to happen through threats and no longer respecting long established understandings on what are Russia's and China's core security "red lines".

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