China Helping Russia’s War With Ukraine With Military Aid—Violating Sanctions

Topline

China is providing military aid to Russia in violation of U.S.-led sanctions placed by western countries, according to Russian trade data reported by the Wall Street Journal, as tensions build between the U.S. and western countries and China, amid a spy balloon scandal and a canceled Beijing visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Reports show Chinese state-owned defense companies have supplied military equipment to Russia.

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Key Facts

China’s state-owned defense companies have shipped navigation equipment and parts to fighter jets and other military technology equipment to Russian defense companies, according to Russian customs data.

According to that data, provided by Washington D.C.-based C4ADS, China has sent tens of thousands of shipments of goods to service Russia’s military (some goods had multiple purposes and could be used commercially, the Journal reported).

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia “has enough technical potential” for its “special military option,” although that potential, he said, “is constantly being improved,” the Journal reported.

The report comes one day after Chinese officials said they had strengthened a “mutual political trust” with Russia, following Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week, Reuters reported.

It also comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled his planned trip to Beijing—the first visit by a senior White House official to China in five years—after U.S. officials reported a Chinese spy balloon floating over Montana.

Tangent

U.S. officials this week also pressed the United Arab Emirates and Turkey—both U.S. trading partners who have rejected sanctions against Russia—to curb financial ties with the Kremlin, multiple outlets reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.. According to sources, those goods—including $800 million in exports from Turkey—could be used by Russia’s defense industry to further its invasion of Ukraine..

Key Background

Moscow and its affluent oligarchs have been dealt heavy economic sanctions from western Europe and North America since it invaded Ukraine nearly one year ago, with businesses pulling out of Russia and western countries alienating themselves from the Kremlin. In recent months, Ukrainian forces have recaptured Russian-occupied territory in the eastern and southern regions of the country, although Russia has continued its onslaught of missile attacks on key Ukrainian cities. U.S. officials warn a potential Russian spring offensive could be coming as the weather warms up, prompting the U.S. to send advanced Abrams battle tanks while Germany sent its Leopard 2 tanks last month. President Biden, meanwhile, has also expressed concerns about Chinese companies supplying military equipment to Russia, Bloomberg reported, after White House officials reportedly found evidence suggesting Beijing was supporting Russia’s military effort.

Contra

Putin had admitted at a meeting in Uzbekistan with Chinese President Xi Jinping last September that China had “questions and concerns” about Moscow’s invasion—Putin’s first meeting with Xi since the invasion began and his first admission that the two countries might not see eye-to-eye on the war. China, which has been boosting imports of Russian oil even as western Europe moves to close itself off from Russian energy exports, had declared a “friendship with no limits” with Russia last February, before the start of the war.

Surprising Fact

Although Russia has been hard-pressed to find military aid, it has also found an ally in the Wagner Group—a group of mercenaries that Russian officials had repeatedly asserted they had no connection with. U.S. officials, however, claim the group has recruited more than 50,000 people, including 40,000 Russian convicts, to fight in Ukraine, U.S. officials have also accused it of supplying military aid to Moscow last March, and last month, the U.S. Department of Treasury last month designated the Wagner Group a “transnational criminal organization”

China Helping Russia’s War With Ukraine With Military Aid—Violating Sanctions—Reports Show