The US said it has no plans to lift sanctions on Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Bloomberg reported on May 23.
According to Bloomberg, speaking to reporters in Washington on May 22, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller denied that the White House was considering the idea of lifting sanctions on Li Shangfu, who took office as China's Defense Minister in March, replacing his predecessor Wei Fenghe.
China has rejected a request from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet Mr Lee next month at a defense forum in Singapore next month because of the sanctions.
In 2018, the administration of former US President Donald Trump sanctioned Mr. Li and the Equipment Development Department of China’s Central Military Commission, which he was in charge of at the time, for purchasing goods from Russia’s state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport, including Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has been on the US sanctions list since 2018, when he was Director of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission of China. Photo: Financial Times
Asked if the State Department was considering lifting sanctions on the Chinese official, Miller said: “No.” The US spokesman added that President Joe Biden “has been clear that we have no plans to lift any sanctions on Mr. Li or on China in general.”
This seems to be in contrast to what the US President said on May 21 while attending the G7 Summit in Japan.
Asked whether Washington would lift sanctions on China’s defense minister so he could meet with Austin, Biden said: “That’s under discussion right now.”
In addition, Mr. Biden also expressed optimism that US-China relations will "start to thaw very quickly", calling the incident involving a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this year "silly".
Bilateral tensions remain high on a number of fronts, with China accusing the US of seeking to contain its rise by restricting access to advanced technology and supporting Taiwan, an island claimed by Beijing.
Despite the harsh rhetoric, the White House has recently begun engaging with China on multiple fronts: US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna, Austria, earlier this month, and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is scheduled to meet with both US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai in Detroit this week .
Minh Duc (According to Bloomberg, CNN)
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