U.S. officials warn China about aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Top U.S. officials on Sunday warned China against helping Russia in its brutal invasion of Ukraine, with a senator saying that doing so would be “dumber than dirt.”

The admonitions came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart for the first time since the U.S. downed a suspected Chinese spying balloon that had flown across the country.

China’s top foreign minister, Wang Yi, gave “no apology” for the incursion, Blinken said Sunday, a day after they met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“What I can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly and very directly about the fact that China sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law,” the secretary of state said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“And I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again,” he concluded.

Earlier this month, U.S. fighter jets downed the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, though Beijing denied it had been used for spying.

Days later, the U.S. blasted several more unidentified objects out of the sky, though officials later said we may never know what those were.

Blinken said Sunday that “China’s considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine.

“It would have serious consequences in our own relationship, something that we do not need on top of the balloon incident that China’s engaged in,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was much less diplomatic.

“If you jump on the Putin train now, you’re dumber than dirt,” he said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie,” Graham continued. “Don’t do this. The most catastrophic thing that could happen to U.S.-China relationship, in my opinion, is for China to … start to give lethal weapons to Putin in this crime against humanity.”

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoed Blinken’s remarks.

“We’re not going to advance and announce what we’re planning to do, but we made clear to the Chinese that there will be consequences should they make that unfortunate decision,” she said of the prospect of Chinese support of Russia’s invasion.