🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The Chinese government has denied a report that it asked Russia to delay its invasion of Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday the report from The New York Times was "fake news" and a "very despicable" attempt to shift blame and divert attention from the conflict, the Associated Press reported.
The Times' story on Wednesday cited a Western intelligence report by credible officials that said senior Chinese officials asked Russia to hold off its invasion of Ukraine until after the Beijing games. The request was believed to have been made around the time President Vladimir Putin was in China for the Olympics opening ceremony. It's not clear from the report if President Xi Jinping asked Putin directly when they met face-to-face or if the request was made through some other communication.
"The New York Times report is purely fake news, and such behaviors of diverting attentions and shifting blames are very despicable," Wang said, according to the AP.
The Olympics closing ceremony was on February 20. Four days later, Putin announced his "special military operation" against Ukraine and started a full-scale invasion.
According to the Times, which quoted Biden administration officials and a European official for the intelligence report, senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge that Russia was going to invade Ukraine before it occurred.
The report said the intelligence on the exchange between Chinese and Russian officials was classified. CNN confirmed the report's authenticity but said the contents of the exchanges between the two nations were open to interpretation.
"These claims are speculation without any basis and are intended to blame-shift and smear China," Liu Pengyu, the Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, told the Times when asked whether Chinese officials had asked for the invasion to be delayed.
Following the meeting at the Olympics, the two countries issued a joint statement declaring "friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no 'forbidden' areas of cooperation."
In the statement, China backed Russia's objection to further expansion of NATO because it threatens Russian security interests, according to the AP. China also demanded that the alliance "respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries."
China is one country that has not criticized Russia's military attack on Ukraine. Instead, China believes that Washington provoked the invasion by not ruling out the option for Ukraine to join NATO, the AP said.
"We hope the culprit of the crisis would reflect on their role in the Ukraine crisis, take up their responsibilities, and take practical actions to ease the situation and solve the problem instead of blaming others," Wang told reporters, according to the AP.
China was one of 35 countries that abstained Wednesday from voting on a resolution in the U.N. General Assembly's emergency session. The resolution called for an immediate halt to the attack on Ukraine and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the region.
Update 03/03/22, 11:40 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with more background and information.
