On the left, the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping; right the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin
New accusations against China by the US: “Military technology exported to Russia”
Fighter aircraft equipment, cutting-edge technologies and parts: Beijing is consistently helping Moscow in the war in Ukraine, bypassing international sanctions. The Wall Street Journal writes it on the basis of an analysis of Russian customs documents. For the rest, these are goods that have dual use, military and civilian, which Russia began importing from China last year, after the invasion of Ukraine. Asked for a comment, the Kremlin limited itself to replying, through the mouth of the spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as follows: “Russia has sufficient technological potential to provide for its own security and carry out the special operation. This potential is constantly updated”. .
If it is true that Moscow manages to supply its own military arsenal on its own, it is equally true that it needs to import dual-use technology from abroad, such as semiconductors, which are essential in contemporary ways of warfare. There is not only China among the countries that in fact support Moscow in its military effort: the documents examined by the WSJ also indicate a role for Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The Chinese, however, take the lion’s share: the financial newspaper analyzed over 84,000 shipments listed in Russian customs registers, complete with dates, senders, recipients, buyers, addresses and product descriptions. For example, the Chinese state-controlled defense company Poly Technologies shipped navigation equipment to Russia’s Rosoboronexport for M-17 military transport helicopters on August 31, 2022.
And at the beginning of the same month, the Chinese electronics company Fujian Nanan Baofeng Electronic Co. supplied, again to Rosoboronexport, through an Uzbek state-owned company, a telescopic antenna for military aircraft, which is used for jamming communications. On October 24, however, it was the Chinese state-owned aviation company Avic International Holding Corp. that sent Ao Kret, a subsidiary of the Russian government giant Rostec, parts worth 1.2 million dollars for the Su jet fighters -35.
The issue of Chinese support for Moscow would have been at the center of the meeting between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the leaders of Beijing this weekend if the story of the spy balloon had not blown up the trip of the head of the US State Department to China.
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