(26 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beijing – 26 April 2024
1. Wide of news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State:
"China is the top supplier of machine tools microelectronics, nitrocellulose, which is critical to making munitions and rocket propellants and other dual use items that Moscow is using to ramp up its defense industrial base, a defense industrial base that is churning out rockets, drones, tanks and other weapons that President Putin is using to invade a sovereign country to demolish his power grid and other civilian infrastructure to kill innocent children, women and men. Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support."
++DIP TO WHITE++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State:
"We also discussed a range of regional and global crises where China can play a constructive role. I encourage China to use its influence to discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East, and to press Pyongyang to end its dangerous behaviour and engage in dialogue."
++DIP TO WHITE++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State:
"On the last question, no, TikTok did not come up, so I can answer that one very quickly."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke in Beijing on Friday after a meeting discussing the war between Ukraine and Russia, the conflict in the Middle East.
Speaking at a news conference in Beijing following the meeting Blinken noted that China was the "top supplier" of various products and materials used to make munitions, which "Moscow is using to ramp up its defense industrial base."
"Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support," he claimed.
Blinken added that he encouraged China to "use its influence to discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East, and to press Pyongyang to end its dangerous behaviour and engage in dialogue."
Blinken arrived in China on Wednesday, visiting Shanghai shortly before Biden signed the $95 billion foreign aid package that has several elements likely to anger Beijing, including $8 billion to counter China’s growing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
It also seeks to force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform.
AP video shot by Olivia Zhang
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