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DailyExpertNews
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Chinese state-owned defense firms have maintained trade relations with sanctioned Russian defense firms over the past year, even as many of the world’s leading economies cut ties with Moscow and the companies driving the ongoing assault on Ukraine.
Customs data viewed by DailyExpertNews shows that key companies within the two countries’ vast military-industrial complexes have continued their long-standing relationships, despite the horror Moscow has unleashed on Europe.
Records show Beijing-based defense contractor Poly Technologies sent at least a dozen shipments — including helicopter parts and air-to-ground radio equipment — to a US-backed Russian company in 2022, through at least mid-November. for his connection to leader Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Poly Technology’s longtime trading partner — Ulan Ude Aviation Plant, a supplier of military-grade helicopters — also continued to ship parts and several helicopters to the Beijing-based company last year, trade records show.
Most of the helicopter parts included in the shipments to Russia were labeled for use in the Mi-171E multipurpose helicopter, designed for transport and search and rescue. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China started importing this helicopter model from Russia more than 10 years ago.
Three shipments from Poly Technologies were labeled as products for the operation or service of the Russian-made Mi-171SH, a weapons-equipped military transport helicopter that has been used in Moscow’s operations in Ukraine.
There is no evidence that the exchanged goods directly fuel the war in Russia.
The customs registrations originated from two datasets. The first was provided by trade data company Import Genius, whose information is gathered by secondary sources from official Russian customs and shipping data.
Washington-based think tank C4ADS, which compiles official customs data from multiple third-party vendors, provided the second set.
DailyExpertNews has not independently verified the data, which may provide a partial but not complete picture of the trade.
Military and security experts say the parts sent to Russia from the Chinese company are fairly basic equipment for Russian-designed aircraft that could be part of existing contracts and standard business relationships between the companies.
But last year’s trade underlines the enduring ties between key players in the state-backed defense sectors on both sides – relationships that had grown stronger over the past decade as Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping developed their strategic alignment.
Experts say such entrenched networks could be used if Beijing provided direct, deadly aid to the Kremlin’s war effort.
Western leaders have warned in recent weeks that China is considering that move. Beijing has denied this, deriding the warning as a “smear”, repeatedly defending its “normal” trade with Russia and rejecting what it calls “unilateral” sanctions against Moscow.
Military ties between Beijing and Moscow have evolved dramatically since the height of the Cold War – a period marked by mutual hostility and ideological divergence.
While some friction remains, the two authoritarian neighbors have grown closer, especially under Putin and Xi, who together proclaimed a “no borders” partnership just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
This includes a growing security relationship.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, a robust but decidedly one-way arms trade flourished in which Russia marketed its superior weapons to China.
More recently, the rapid modernization of China’s military has shifted that dynamic.
In 2021, Putin boasted that the two countries were “together developing certain high-tech types of weapons,” according to Russian state media, and praised their joint military exercises — which have also expanded in scope and geographic scope.
On the front lines of that relationship are the state-affiliated military contractors. Those are being integrated into “an increasingly sophisticated supply chain,” said Alex Gabuev, a senior fellow at the international think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Then came the war in Ukraine.
So far, China has acted cautiously in circumventing sweeping Western sanctions against those who support Russia — though 10 Chinese companies have been hit by US restrictions related to the war.
But a key question for Western officials is whether existing defense relationships can be used by China to provide deadly aid to the Kremlin’s war effort, widely believed to be running low on ammunition and weapons.
Last month, DailyExpertNews reported that US intelligence officials believe the Chinese government is considering sending drones and munitions to Russia.
On March 7, China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, said that China “has not supplied arms to either side” of the Russian war, denouncing US concern in the matter as hypocritical.
Chinese foreign affairs observers say China’s leadership is well aware of the reputational and economic damage if it is suspected of backing Moscow militarily — and many are skeptical that Beijing would take such a step at this point to establish a nuclear-armed help Russia.
“Russia is losing this war in general terms… but it is not a loss that would lead to the downfall of Putin and the democratization of Russia, so I see no reason for China to do more than it is doing now,” said Gabuev .
The goods traded between Chinese and Russian defense firms in the data reviewed by DailyExpertNews are not the munitions the Russian military would need most in a year after the attack on Ukraine. China is also not alone in continuing to purchase from a war-torn Russia.
When asked by DailyExpertNews about the shipments from China to sanctioned Russian companies, China’s foreign ministry said it was “unaware of the situation” and that China is “resolutely on the side of dialogue and peace”.
The Kremlin did not respond to a DailyExpertNews request for comment.
But on Feb. 27, the spokesman said Russia saw “no need to comment further” on claims that Russia had asked China for military equipment, which he said had already been refuted by Beijing.
Poly Technologies describes itself on its website as the main subsidiary of China Poly Group, a leading state-owned enterprise, “exclusively authorized by the Chinese central government for import/export of defense systems.”
Poly Technologies was sanctioned by the US in 2013 under rules targeting companies supplying Iran, North Korea and Syria, and again in January last year for alleged missile proliferation. China Poly Group did not respond to a request for comment.
The company’s trading partner, Ulan Ude Aviation Plant, a subsidiary of leading state-owned manufacturer Russian Helicopters, which has long made the widely used Mi-8/17 series helicopters integral to Russian military transport, also did not respond to a request for comment. .
Two other major companies appear in the customs records: China’s AVIC International Holding, controlled by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, and Russia’s United Engine Corporation (UEC), part of state defense giant Rostec.
Their trade included Russian-designed jet engine parts, many of which were labeled for an engine used in Chinese fighter jets.
Shipments from AVIC International to UEC through July last year were listed as contractual obligations under warranty, and export records show that UEC shipped parts for the same engine model to China, including as recently as December, according to data from Import Genius.
AVIC International and UEC did not respond to requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal previously referred to shipments from Poly Technologies and AVIC International Holding to Russian partners.
A DailyExpertNews report shows Russia is receiving military support from China
Washington’s position is that any company that supplies or is active in the Russian defense sector is at risk of being sanctioned.
But China may not be too concerned about the trades reflected in the trade data reviewed by DailyExpertNews, according to Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington think tank Stimson Center.
“This kind of export has to be approved by the government. But given the nature of these parts and the fact that (Poly Technologies) has been under US sanctions since 2013, the government may not see the need to not approve it,” she said.
Some experts have raised questions about whether aviation parts coming to Russia from China — many of which have been labeled “used” or sourced from Russia — could still be spare parts needed by a Russia at war.
Sun said it was no surprise that Russia would continue to honor contracts for equipment bought by China, but warned that goods going the other way “could be re-imported by Russia to supply their war supplies”.
It’s also unlikely that the full picture will ever be revealed.
“Neither China nor Russia wants Western intelligence agencies to be aware of the depth and breadth of their strategic alignment,” said Alexander Korolev, an associate professor of politics and international relations at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
If China provided deadly aid, Korolev added, “every effort would be made to cover it up.”
“And one way to cover it up is to make it seem like it’s just part of regular, long-standing military tech cooperation — rather than a response to the war.”
