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The United States has accused China of supplying Russia with cruise missiles, drone engines and ballistic missile machine tools, while urging Europe to step up diplomatic and economic pressure on Beijing to halt the sales.
In revealing previously classified information, senior US officials said that Chinese and Russian groups were working to jointly produce drones in Russia. They said China also supplied 90% of the chips Russia imported last year and used to make tanks, missiles and planes.
The officials added that China is also helping Russia improve its satellites and other space capabilities to help prosecute the war in Ukraine, and Beijing is also providing satellite imagery.
Dennis Wilder, a former China military analyst at the CIA, said the disclosure “far exceeds previous estimates and shows a concerted agenda by Chinese leaders” to help Moscow prosecute the war in Ukraine.
“Russia lost access to essential machine tools from Europe early in the conflict, and China moved to fill the gap,” said Wilder, now at Georgetown University.
Wilder said the chips are essential for targeting systems and radars and that China is also a world leader in drones for military and civilian purposes.
People familiar with the situation said the United States believes European pressure would be key to convincing Beijing to stop exporting the material.
The U.S. revelations on Friday come after officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns with European capitals in recent weeks over China’s supply of military technology to Russia and pushed allies to ask for help.
In addition to rhetorical pressure, the United States wants Europe to increase its use of economic tools. One person said Europe sanctioned three Chinese groups after the invasion, compared to Washington’s more than 100.
The person said Beijing had become increasingly confident that its support for Moscow would not jeopardize economic relations with Europe, and that it would be concerned about any further pressure given its economic problems. You said that sanctions from European countries could have a very significant impact on changing the calculus in China.
The person said the United States is also making clear to banks — in China and elsewhere — the implications of facilitating trade payments from Russia to Chinese groups that help Moscow rebuild its military.
The campaign to push European countries to increase pressure on China comes just two weeks after US President Joe Biden raised the issue in a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A second person said Washington saw no sign of a Beijing withdrawal after the call between the leaders.
Senior US officials have said China has been building support for Russia for more than two years and Beijing believes it can avoid crossing any red lines by providing material that technically does not amount to “lethal” assistance.
But Chinese support is helping Russia rebuild its defense industrial base and reduce the impact of Western sanctions and export controls.
“These materials are filling critical gaps in the Russian defense production cycle,” a senior US official said. “As a result, Russia is undertaking its most ambitious defense expansion since the Soviet era, and more quickly than we thought possible at the outset of this conflict.”
Officials said several Chinese groups – including Wuhan Global Sensor Technology, Wuhan Tongsheng Technology and Hikvision – are supplying optical components for use in Russian weapons systems, including tanks and armored vehicles. They said Russia also obtained military weapons optics from iRay Technology and the North China Research Institute of Electro-Optics.
Washington has also accused Dalian Machine Tool Group, one of China’s largest companies, of supplying tools to Russia.
The officials added that Chinese entities “probably also supply” Russia with nitrocellulose, which is used to make weapons propellants. They said this allowed Moscow to “rapidly” expand its capacity to produce critical munitions, including artillery shells.
Washington hopes that European countries will be more forceful with China in upcoming trips to Beijing.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will have the opportunity to convey the message to Xi when he meets him on Tuesday during his second official trip to China. Before the trip, a senior German official said Berlin was “concerned” that Beijing was “handing over to Russia goods that support its war effort – dual-use technologies that Russia can use for military purposes.”
“It’s something we’re very concerned about,” he said. “We will clarify this during the talks.”