ukraine, and i m concerned that that may have serious consequences in our relationship, as well, something that president biden has shared with president xi on several occasions. finally, i underscored the importance of having direct lines of communication, the importance of continuing to engage in diplomacy between our countries. i think this is something that the world expects of us. they expect us to manage this relationship responsibly, and so it was important that we had that opportunity this evening here in munich. i want to start with what i think is the newer piece of information that you re sharing, and i know that we ve been reporting separately. this concern that china is considering potential lethal aid in this war to russia. what evidence can you share with us that indicates your concern that they re going to escalate their help to russia? as you said, they ve been helping them rhetorically and helping them by buying cheap oil, but what is the other evidence that you h
publicly they present themselves as a country striving for peace in ukraine, but privately, as i ve said, we ve seen already over these past months the provision of non-lethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting russia s war effort and some further information that we are sharing today, and that i think will be out there soon that indicates that they are strongly considering providing lethal assistance to russia. to the best of our knowledge what form is that? we haven t crossed that line yet, but we re sharing. in what form? chuck, i don t want to get into the details in this moment, but there are various kinds of lethal assistance that they re contemplating providing to include weapons.
anthony blinken speaking to you just moments ago where he effectively is dialing things up, it appears. it would appear that the relationship is escalating and the point that he wouldn t get to that you tried to pin him down on is what is that new evidence that china is trying to provide lethal aid to russia right now. notably, he won t say it because you remember when this war began in the u.s., antony blinken was quick to say that there was declassified information and russia would invade and they were right on so why not call them out as the evidence would exist and no one can identify what that evidence is. they just said to me, for china, nothing is off the table is their view. amna, it does feel like there s a bit of do they want to dial things down or do they not? to peter s point, i want to see what that intelligence is to back up those claims because secretary blinken was not the only one to make that assessment. we had vice president harris in her speech at munich warni
we re not looking for a new cold war. secretary antony blink en meets for the first time since the president canceled his trip to beijing. i ll ask the secretary of state. plus, critical moment. there is no doubt these are crimes against humanity. the u.s. accuses russia of crimes against humanity as the war approaches the one-year mark. i don t think the ukrainians would collapse or fall. i think they ll continue to fight. will the u.s. and its allies defeat putin without boots on the ground? we ll get a report from the front lines. and primary fight. america is not past our prime. it s just that our politicians are past theirs. nikki haley is the first republican candidate to challenge donald trump, but she s not ready to criticize her former boss.
supplying russia or may supply russia with lethal aid in its war against ukraine. on thursday the president did try to turn the temperature down a bit with china, acknowledging that the three unidentified objects shot down over lake huron, alaska, and canada were not tied to china but were likely simply research balloons. we seek competition, not conflict with china. we re not looking for a new cold war. i expect to be speaking with president xi, and i hope we have we will get to the bottom of this. i make no apologies for taking down that balloon. china s top foreign policy official responded on saturday in his visit to munich. he told the gathering of world leaders that the u.s. response was a strategic misjudgment and he also called it absurd and hysterical and warned the cold war mentality is back.