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Blinken questions China peace push over Russia help

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to members of the press on September 27, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
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Blinken questions China peace push over Russia help

  • China's statement that it wants to see an end to the Russian-Ukraine conflict but allows companies to help Putin continue the aggression doesn’t add up, Blinken said
  • America's top diplomat met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assemploy on Friday
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday questioned China’s sincerity in seeking peace in Ukraine as he directly pressed his counterpart over exports that boost Russia’s military.
Blinken met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the latest talks as the two powers look to dial down once-soaring tensions.
While crediting the diplomacy with bringing progress, Blinken warned that the United States would not back down on concerns over China’s exports to Russia and made clear that Washington could impose more sanctions.
Blinken said that China is fueling the “war machine” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“When Beijing says that, on the one hand, that it wants peace, it wants to see an end to the conflict, but on the other hand is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Putin continue the aggression, that doesn’t add up,” Blinken told a news conference.
“Our intent is not to decouple Russia from China. Their relationship is their business,” he said.
“But insofar as that relationship involves providing Russia what it needs to continue this war, that’s a problem for us, and it’s a problem for many other countries, notably in Europe,” Blinken added.
The top US diplomat said that China has provided 70 percent of machine tools and 90 percent of microelectronics needed by Russia for military production that includes rockets and armored vehicles.
Wang told Blinken during the meeting that China’s position on the Ukraine conflict was “open and aboveboard, always advocating for peace and dialogue, and working toward a political solution,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“The US should stop smearing and sanctioning China and refrain from using the issue to create divisions and provoke bloc confrontations,” Wang added.
China says it has not directly provided weapons to Russia and draws a contrast with the United States, which has shipped billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine since the 2022 invasion by Russia.
Wang told a Security Council session on Tuesday that China was “not a creator of the Ukraine crisis, nor are we a party to it. China has all along stood on the side of peace.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a UN address criticized China and Brazil for promoting negotiations to end the war, saying that forcing Ukraine to accept a peace deal was akin to colonialism.
The two countries kept up the drive on Friday, leading a statement with other emerging powers that calls for a “comprehensive and lasting settlement” through diplomacy.
But in a thinly veiled criticism of Putin’s recent saber-rattling, the emerging powers called on all sides to refrain “from the use or the threat of weapons of mass destruction.”
South Africa and Turkiye were among the powers that also signed the statement.
Putin this week threatened to use nuclear weapons in the event of a major attack on Russian soil as Ukraine, looking to hit back against the invasion, seeks Western weapons to strike deeper across the border.


Since Blinken and Wang last met in July at a regional conference in Laos, China has pleased the United States by releasing an American pastor imprisoned for years, although other Americans are detained.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a summit in November 2023 with counterpart Joe Biden, agreed to key US demands of restoring military communication between the two powers.
He also agreed to take action against producers of ingredients in fentanyl, the painkiller behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.
But a wide range of disagreements remain.
Blinken said he warned Wang against Beijing’s “dangerous, destabilizing actions” on the South China Sea, where tensions have risen sharply between China and US ally the Philippines.
On the disputed waterway, Wang urged the US to “stop stirring up trouble...and undermining the efforts of regional countries to maintain peace and stability.”
Wang also slammed US “suppression” of China’s trade, technology, and economy and told Blinken that Washington should pursue “dialogue with respect.”
“Since the US has repeatedly expressed that it does not intend to confront China, it should establish a rational understanding of China at its core, create a proper way of coexistence, (and) engage in dialogue with respect,” Wang told Blinken.
The latest meeting came ahead of the November 5 election in which Republican candidate Donald Trump has vowed to take a harder line on China.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, have said that they seek dialogue to avoid conflict between the two powers, although their administration has also taken a hard line.
Blinken’s deputy, Kurt Campbell, recently told a congressional hearing that China posed a broader challenge to the United States than the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.
 

Topics: Russian-Ukraine conflict Antony Blinken China

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France’s homeless wrap up to survive at freezing year’s end

Updated 2 sec ago
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France’s homeless wrap up to survive at freezing year’s end

Updated 2 sec ago
PARIS: In the biting cold, homeless friends Danish and Sylvain walked briskly in the dark toward a hot meal distribution point, rubbing their hands together, their huge backpacks weighing down on their shoulders.
“If you stop, the cold seeps into your bones. As long as we’re walking, we’re producing heat,” said 50-year-old Danish, a Pakistani who asked to withhold his surname to avoid embarrassing his France-based family.
Temperatures in France have dropped in recent weeks and are expected to hover around zero in many areas on New Year’s Eve.
Several French regions including Paris have increased shelter beds to help the homeless, but reports have already emerged of some appearing to have frozen to death.
Sylvain, 52, said he and his companion checked the weather forecast on their phones every night to best prepare.
The Frenchman, who also did not want to give his surname to protect his three children, said he wore six layers on his chest — a t-shirt, a jumper, a fleece, a waistcoat and two jackets.
“The trick is to let air between the layers. If it’s too tight, there’s not much isolation,” he said.
He also wears tights and two pairs of socks, and he tops it all off with a beanie, a cap and a furry hat with flaps.
“You lose heat through the top of your head,” he said.
Neither he, nor his companion Danish, drink alcohol, he said.
“It makes you numb so you don’t know when you’re cold, and you can slip away during the night,” Sylvain said.

- ‘Sleep without fear’ -

This winter has already proven deadly.
A homeless man was found lifeless in a Paris street on Sunday, likely having frozen to death, a police source said. He had been staying in a nearby shelter.
On Christmas day, a 35-year-old homeless person was found dead in the northern city of Reims, a prosecutor said.
There are no recent official figures on homelessness in France. But the Housing Foundation, a charity, estimates 350,000 people do not have a permanent home — including 20,000 who sleep rough nationwide. Many in Paris are undocumented migrants.
More than 900 people without a home died throughout the year in 2024, on average aged 47, according to a charity called Dead in the Street.
Paris authorities say they have set up emergency shelters in sports halls and schools to help during the cold wave, while charities too have added beds to their facilities.
At a charity-run shelter in Paris, which provides bedding for more than 370 people on seven floors, volunteers have been handing out hot meals.
Nakunzi Fumiasuca, a 36-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he had been living in a tent until he was offered a bed.
“Here I can sleep without fear,” he said.
Taha Nouri, a 32-year-old who arrived in France from Libya in 2021, came after the charity brought him in, telling him he could stay for a week.
“I was able to have a shower, eat well, see a doctor and get medicine,” he said.
But Danish and Sylvain say their calls to a hotline to request shelter never go through.
Instead they have been sleeping rough in one of the main train stations in Paris — always trying to watch out that no one steals their blanket.
“When you have one stolen and it’s cold, it’s a disaster,” said Sylvain. “Your only option is to ride the night bus around Paris until dawn.”

- ‘Time stopped’ -

Danish said he came to France with his father three decades ago and was working as a waiter, but ended up in the street after a dispute with his boss three months ago.
“I’m deeply ashamed sometimes,” he said. “I don’t want my family to see me like this.”
Sylvain said he worked as a cleaner for 15 years before a painful separation from his wife in 2022 pushed him into the street.
When he left, his three children were eight, 12 and 16, he said.
“Time stopped,” he said.
He speaks to them on the phone every week, but tells them he is “staying with a friend.”
Until they can find a solution, the two men plan their lives around the capital’s free food distributions.
Keeping clean is difficult as public bathrooms are often closed or out of hot water, Sylvain said.
But Danish insisted they do their best with cold water.
Sometimes there are good surprises. Last week, a charity handed Sylvain what he said was “a real present.”
“It had everything: a hat, toothpaste, cotton buds and even perfume — not the cheap kind,” he said.
But at the weekend, Sylvain said, he had to rip out two teeth himself to stop a throbbing toothache.
“I gave them a good yank and now it’s sorted,” he said.

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