Hong Kong: With President Donald Trump bogging the USA down in a perhaps unwinnable war against Iran, he has strengthened China’s hand. Furthermore, Beijing continues to reinforce its influence on the world stage and to subtly support Russia in its own war with Ukraine and the West.
Depleted American missile and weapon stocks have been known about for a long time - exacerbated by the Iran War - and this plays directly into Chairman Xi Jinping’s hands. It is highly likely this factor is contributing to Chinese and Russian calculations, as they plan their next moves against Taiwan and Ukraine, respectively.
As Dr. Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy I ion is now leading to a very dangerous crisis for US military capability emerging - not in a decade, not in a year or two, but now.”
Of course, China has been a lot less overt in its support for Russia than North Korea has. Beijing has not dispatched cannon fodder soldiers or sold missiles, but it has nonetheless been actively supporting Vladimir Putin’s protracted war in Ukraine. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, described China as a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war”.
Beijing’s proclaimed neutrality about the Russian-Ukraine war is anything but. It has been a fiction from the beginning, when China swiftly rehashed Moscow’s talking points and even conducted compulsory courses telling teachers and lecturers exactly how to present the official narrative around Putin’s war. China has not wavered from that telling of the story since.
China is very selective in its criticism. When the USA attacked Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quick to say, “No matter the justification, the indiscriminate use of force is unacceptable, and any attack on innocent civilians and non-military targets must be condemned.” Yet in more than four years of Putin’s war against Ukraine, the only warning China has given Moscow is not to use nuclear weapons. This fact alone illustrates China’s hypocrisy.
Yet, as Russian-born Garry Kasparov, a former chess grandmaster, remarked, “China aids Russia directly and indirectly without suffering consequences.” Despite being the key facilitator of Russia’s war, it has not suffered any real penalty.
Yes, some Chinese companies have been sanctioned by the USA, UK or EU, but there has been no real political cost. What form does Chinese support for Russia take, then? The division of labour sees Moscow provide combat lessons to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), while in exchange China flows electronics, semiconductors and machinery into Russia to aid its military-industrial complex. China is eager to absorb Russia’s warfare lessons, for they relate directly to its military designs on Taiwan.
There are plentiful records of Chinese support for Russia. For example, as far back as 2023, there were numerous reports detailing how Chinese state-owned defence companies were providing items like navigation equipment, drones, jamming technology and jet-fighter parts to Russia. Other dual-use items flowed through countries like Turkey and the UAE.
China’s share of Russian dual-use imports grew from 30% to 66% from 2021-23. By 2025, EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan estimated China was supplying 80% of components used in Russian weapons production. These transfers are facilitated by shipping through third countries, renaming export items and making shadowy transactions through intermediaries or covert payment systems. By April 2026, Bloomberg was reporting that 90+% of Russian imports of sanctioned technology suitable for producing weapons came through China. (ANI)
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