Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday slammed American measures against Chinese tech giant Huawei as a means to “hold Chinese development back.”
His comments, in an annual televised “direct line” with the Russian public, come as relations between Moscow and Beijing have been blossoming, to the alarm of some U.S. policymakers.
In the Russian president’s TV event, which usually runs for hours and is heavily censored, he also addressed many questions about internal affairs, including falling real incomes, corruption, Internet freedom, healthcare and utility tariffs.
When he was asked about sanctions that have been imposed on Russia since 2014 when it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and was accused of backing pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbass, Putin said that even if Russia “totally surrender[ed] and spit on our fundamental interests” to reverse the sanctions, nothing would fundamentally change.
He compared the situation to tariffs imposed on China by the United States, saying they are “essentially sanctions.”
Negotiations between Beijing and Washington took a turn for the worse in early May with a tariff hike on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods exported to the U.S., and an effective ban on American companies doing business with Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
The U.S. has also begun investigating whether $300 billion of other Chinese goods could be subject to tariffs.
Beijing responded with tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods.
“Look at China,” Putin said Thursday. “It has nothing to do with Crimea or Donbass. You know how we are being blamed for occupying Donbass, which is absurd and a lie. China has nothing to do with that, but the tariffs on their goods — consider them sanctions — are growing and growing.”
He also addressed U.S. restrictions against Huawei.
“Where did that come from and what is the reasoning behind it,” Putin said. “The reasoning is holding Chinese development back. [China] has become a global competitor of another global empower — the United States. The same is happening towards Russia and will be happening in the future.”
During the televised event, a moderator mentioned that there was a hacking attempt “from abroad” on the call center taking in questions for the president. There was no immediate information about where exactly the alleged attack came from.
