Top US Diplomat: "Partners" Share Concerns Over Chinese Aid To Russia

Daniel Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has told a US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on China that, "many US partners share US concerns that China will decide to provide lethal aid to Russia."

• Kritenbrink made the comments in front of the Republican-led committee as the GOP begins a number of broad investigations into the US-China bilateral relationship.
• Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) opened the hearing commending the Biden administration for "harmonising" export controls on China with Japan and the Netherlands but expressed concern that the administration's efforts aren't "as all-encompassing as they should be."
• McCaul claimed that in "one recent six-month time period" the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) "approved licences" worth USD$100 billion to "military companies of the CCP."
• Kritenbrink told the panel that China represents, "our most consequential geopolitical challenge because it is the only competitor with both the intent, and increasingly, with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological capability to reshape the international order. The scale and scope of the PRC... will test American diplomacy like few issues we have seen."