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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, now let me ask you this. China clearly must be worried that any perception of tilting to or doing business with Russia at this particular moment, where there’s global sanctions — I want to just play this sound bite by the spokeswoman for the Biden administration about what might happen to China if indeed there’s any connection economically with Russia at this time. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If China were to decide to be an economic provider or to take additional steps there to Russia, they only make up 15 percent or 20 — 15 to 20 percent of the world’s economy. The G7 countries make up more than 50 percent. So there are a range of tools at our disposal, in coordination with our European partners, should we need to use them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So, Victor Gao, she’s basically alluding to possible sanctions, secondary sanctions and the like against China. Is that a price China is willing to pay for backing up what President Xi called his friend with no limits President Putin?
VICTOR GAO, VICE PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR CHINA AND GLOBALIZATION: First of all, I think that Ms. Psaki’s estimation or numbers are not accurate. China now accounts for about 18 percent of the total economy in the world. Secondly, allow me to remind all of us that China, Russia normalized their relations back in 1989, before the collapse of the former Soviet Union. It is already 33 years. And over these three decades, China and Russia have been respecting each other. The two peoples have dealt with each other with equality, with mutual respect. And China-Russian trade has been in the range of more than 18 — 180 billion U.S. dollars. It’s all comprehensive. It covers a whole range of things. How could anyone in the world today expect that they could bring this China-Russian trade to a halt? No, this is not the right thing to do. How can anyone expect that they can disrupt the people-to-people exchanges between China and Russia today? No, this is really not the right thing to do. Don’t sabotage international trade by sanctioning China, especially because China has now the rare asset of having good channels of communication with Russia on the one hand, and with Ukraine on the other hand. And China does not have a vested interest at all in the outcome of this war. China is on the side of peace…
AMANPOUR: Ooh, OK.
GAO: … rather than having a vested interest in promoting war in Ukraine.
About This Episode EXPAND
Scholar and author Francis Fukuyama discusses whether the U.S.-led liberal world order can survive — and whether America has the moral authority and the will to lead. Should Putin succeed in shredding the world order, will leadership come from Russia, China, or both? Photojournalist Lynsey Addario captured an image that shocked the world and became one of the defining images of the Ukraine war.
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