China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, said on Saturday, Western nations are “weaponizing” globalization, CNN reported. 

He spoke of the sanctions against Russia becoming increasingly outrageous and claimed that abusing sanctions would result in severe consequences for the world. 

Speaking at the International Forum on Strategy and Security held by Tsinghua University, Le said “Sanctions will only harm ordinary people, impact the post-war economic and financial system, and make the world economy worse”, and added, “historical experience has proven time and again that sanctions cannot solve problems”.

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Further, Le explained that the crux of the conflict in Ukraine is “Cold War mentality and power politics”, and also blamed NATO for going back on its word of not expanding eastward. 

Notably, China has already blamed the US for causing the current conflict in Ukraine, saying that NATO’s eastward expansion made Russia’s security concerns legitimate. 

Le also said, as per CNN, that NATO should have been disbanded and left in history along with the Warsaw pact. The Chinese official added, “NATO continues to strengthen and expand. One can imagine the result of this, the Ukraine crisis is a warning”. 

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His comments come after the high-level call between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, where the latter warned the former against providing aid to Russia. The Foreign Ministry of China has also issued a statement saying time will tell that the nation is on the right side of history, and China’s stance is in alignment with the wishes of most nations. 

Thus far, China has refused to sanction Russia and has not termed its actions in Ukraine as an invasion. The two nations share close ties with Reuters reporting that China depends on Russia for most of its oil and gas needs. The US accused Russia of seeking military and economic aid from China, which both countries have denied. However, when Vladimir Putin met his counterpart Xi, at the Beijing Olympics, the two leaders promised to remain united against Western criticisms of their supposedly authoritarian governments.