Senator John Barrasso Says China is ‘Puppet Master’ Using Russia, slight Pushback from Deputy Secretary

At today’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Senator John Barrasso questioned Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell of the U.S. Department of State on the Biden administration’s failure to prevent China’s use of adversarial countries to weaken American dominance.

Barrasso argues the Biden administration has allowed China to evade U.S. sanctions and support America’s adversaries by purchasing Russian and Iranian oil. Barrasso also discussed China’s potential strategic use of these adversarial countries to obtain control over Taiwan.

Deputy Secretary Campbell testified at today’s Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on Strategic Competition with the PRC: Assessing Competitiveness Beyond the Indo-Pacific.

“It’s clear China is actively helping both Russia and Iran evade U.S. sanctions," said the senator. "

“In fact, oil revenues from China are propping up Russian and Iranian economies. They get to buy them at a discount, so China benefits from that. And then Iran and Russia get the money from China. I view China as using Russia as a wrecking ball."

“Iran, right now, is exporting almost 1.3 million barrels of oil to China every day when there are supposed to be sanctions in place. The Treasury Secretary says, ‘well, they can't do any more,’ but the New York Times pointed out just how much oil that the U.S. is allowing and the sanctions that are being evaded.

Campbell responded, "I would just say this though, the relationship between these authoritarian countries is very complex and [my] only offer to you is don't underestimate Russian agency here. Putin is a master at even playing the weak hand. He has his own interests. He's been very affective at maneuvering China in this respect, but I would simply say each are subtly trying to advance their interests.

"For the United States, we need to realize that our associations are deeper, they're based on democracy largely; people to people; a large consensus of the people that elect the leadership. These countries are animated by leaders who are distrustful, often deeply distrustful, and they're often subtly maneuvering against each other."

"I'll give you an example," continued Campbell. "China and Russia are competing now for influence in NOrth Korea, and China is anxious now about some of the steps that Russia has taken with North Korea. China is competing with Russia in the arctic. It doesn't mean that there's a division or gulf, but it means there is a complex diplomacy among these various countries that are agrieved by us and we just have to keep that in mind as we construct our own diplomacy towards them.

You can see the entire exchange here.