BERLIN, May 31 (Reuters) - Deputy U.S. Treasury
Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Friday that Washington and the
European Union must deliver a message to China that its firms
face a choice between doing business with U.S. and EU economies
or equipping Russia with dual-use goods.
It had to be made clear that "Chinese firms can either do
business in our economies or they can equip Russia's war
machinery with dual-use goods. They can't continue to do both,"
he said on a visit to Berlin.
"Let's make clear to Chinese companies that we are all
prepared to use our sanctions and export controls to hold them
accountable," he said.
The warning to Chinese firms comes as President Joe Biden's
administration has stepped up messaging about China's support
for Russia and issued an executive order in December that
threatened sanctions on financial institutions helping Moscow
skirt Western sanctions.
Russia last year imported $5.2 billion worth of
sensitive, dual-use goods - which can be used for both civil and
military purposes - from China-based suppliers, Adeyemo said.
Adeyemo warned that failing to convince China to stop
selling dual-use goods to Russia poses a significant threat to
Europe's national security, adding that Russian President
Vladimir Putin was confident that he could challenge NATO.
Many of the goods from coalition countries still being
found in Russian military equipment are largely being
transhipped through China, he said.
Adeyemo's warning to China comes after U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Wednesday accused China's
leadership of supporting Russia's war in Ukraine and warned that
Beijing could face further sanctions in response from the United
States and other NATO countries.
On Tuesday, White House Deputy National Security Adviser
for International Economics Daleep Singh said the U.S. and its
partners were prepared to use sanctions and export controls to
prevent China-Russia trade that threatens their security amid
the Ukraine war.