China is militarily aiding Russia’s offensive in Ukraine which will soon mark one year. A report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Saturday (February 4) said that China is providing the technology that the Russian military needs for its special military operation in Ukraine despite sanctions and export controls imposed by the West. According to Russian customs data reviewed by the WSJ, Chinese state-owned defence companies have been shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and fighter-jet parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defence companies.
Citing records provided by C4ADS in July last year, the report said that China sent tens of thousands of shipments of dual-use goods—products that have both commercial and military applications to the Russian military.
China’s support to Russia while it wages the war on Ukraine was supposed to be on the agenda for discussion during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing. However, Blinken postponed his trip due to the US and China locking horns over a suspected Chinese spy balloon seen flying over American skies, which was shot on Saturday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, said that Russia had enough technological potential to ensure its security and carry out its offensive (in Ukraine), adding, this potential was constantly being improved.
Moscow relies heavily on imports for dual-use technology
The WSJ report on Saturday pointed out that while Russia can produce most of its basic military requirements domestically, it relies heavily on imports for dual-use technology. Officials from Western countries earlier said that their economic pressures on Russia would cripple its war machine by targeting such exports including computer chips, infrared cameras and radar equipment.
However, customs and corporate records show that Moscow is still able to import that technology through countries that haven’t joined American led-efforts to cut it (Russia) off from global markets, the report said, adding that many of the export-controlled products are still flowing through countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey.
The journal by C4ADS also showed that Chinese companies- both state-owned and private- have been the dominant exporters of dual-use goods. Naomi Garcia, an analyst at C4ADS, said that despite international scrutiny and sanctions protocols, reliable global trade showed that Chinese state-owned defence companies continued to send military-applicable parts to sanctioned Russian defence companies. Garcia added that these Russian companies had been recorded using such parts directly in the war in Ukraine.
What do the records show?
As per the customs records, Poly Technologies, a Chinese state-owned defence company, shipped navigation equipment to Russian military export firm JSC Rosoboronexport for M-17 military transport helicopters on August 31 last year. Earlier that month, another Chinese company Nanan Baofeng Electronic supplied a telescoping antenna for the RB-531BE military vehicle to Rosoboronexport—through an Uzbek state-owned defence firm.
And on October 24, 2022, another Chinese company AVIC International Holding Corp shipped $1.2 million worth of parts for Su-35 jet fighters to AO Kret, which is a subsidiary of Russian state-owned defence giant Rostec.
Wang Shaofeng, general manager of Fujian Baofeng Electronics Co., told the WSJ that a third party might be illegally using his company’s name and that it does not include “Nanan”. Shaofeng added that his company does not produce telescoping antennas and also does not have a record of shipping to any Uzbek state-owned defence firm
The allegation is baseless, says Beijing
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the US, told the WSJ that the allegation of Beijing providing aid to Russia has no factual basis, adding it is purely speculative and deliberately hyped up.
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