Beijing Sending Equipment to Moscow to Support Battle…

WASHINGTON (AP) — China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its battle against Ukraine, according to a U.S. assessment.

Two senior Biden administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the findings Friday, said that in 2023 about 90% of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. Nearly 70% of Russia’s roughly $900 million in machine tool imports in the final quarter of 2023 came from China.

Chinese and Russian entities have also been working to jointly produce unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia, and Chinese companies are likely providing Russia with nitrocellulose used in the manufacture of ammunition, the officials said. China-based companies Wuhan Global Sensor Technology Co., Wuhan Tongsheng Technology Co. Ltd. and Hikvision are supplying optical components for use in Russian tanks and armored vehicles.

The officials said Russia has obtained military optics for use in tanks and armored vehicles manufactured by Chinese companies iRay Technology and North China Research Institute of Electro-Optics, and China has been providing Russia with UAV engines and turbojet engines for cruise missiles.

Russia’s semiconductor imports from China jumped from $200 million in 2021 to over $500 million in 2022, according to Russian customs records analyzed by the Free Russia Foundation, a group that advocates for civil society development.

Beijing is also working with Russia to enhance its satellite and other space-based capabilities for use in Ukraine, a development officials say could increase the threat Russia poses across Europe in the longer term. The officials, citing downgraded intelligence findings, said the U.S. has also determined that China is providing imagery to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

The officials mentioned the findings as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks. Blinken is scheduled to travel next week to the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Capri, Italy, where he is expected to raise concerns about China’s growing indirect support for Russia as Moscow revamps its military and seeks to consolidate recent gains in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has previously raised his concerns directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Beijing indirectly supporting Russia’s war effort.

While China has not offered lethal military support to Russia, it has backed it diplomatically in blaming the West for provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to open the battle and avoided calling it an invasion out of deference to the Kremlin.

China has repeatedly stated it is not providing Russia with weapons or military assistance, although it has maintained strong financial connections with Moscow, alongside India and other countries, amid sanctions from Washington and its allies.

“The normal trade between China and Russia should not be interfered with or restricted,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Washington. “We urge the U.S. side to refrain from disparaging and scapegoating the normal relationship between China and Russia.”

Xi met in Beijing on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who heaped praise on Xi’s leadership.

Russia’s rising financial and diplomatic isolation has made it increasingly more reliant on China, its extinct rival for management of the Communist bloc all over the Cool Battle.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who returned to Washington this week from a visit to Beijing said she warned Chinese officials that the Biden administration was prepared to sanction Chinese banks, companies and Beijing’s leadership if they support Russia’s military in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Democratic president issued an executive order in December giving Yellen the authority to sanction financial institutions that aided Russia’s military-industrial complex.

“We continue to be concerned about the role that any companies, including those in the PRC, are playing in Russia’s military procurement,” Yellen told journalists, using the initials for the People’s Republic of China. “I told them that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia’s war and that they will face serious consequences if they do. And I emphasized that any banks that facilitate significant transactions channeling military or dual-use goods to Russia’s defense industrial base expose themselves to the risk of U.S. sanctions.”

The U.S. has continually downgraded and unveiled intelligence findings about Russia’s plans and operations over the course of the more than 2-year-old battle with Ukraine.

Such efforts have been focused on highlighting plans for Russian misinformation operations or to draw attention to Moscow’s difficulties in prosecuting its war against Ukraine as well as its coordination with Iran and North Korea to obtain badly needed weaponry. Blinken last year highlighted intelligence that showed China was considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia.

The White House believes that the public airing of the intelligence findings has led China, at least for now, to hold off on directly arming Russia. China’s economy has also been slow to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese officials may be sensitive to pressure from European capitals, which have maintained closer ties to Beijing even as the U.S.-China relationship has grown more tense.

In the meantime, China on Thursday imposed rare sanctions on two U.S. defense companies over what it called their support for arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory to be recovered by force if necessary.

The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held in China. It also bars the companies’ executives from entering the country.

Filings show General Dynamics operates a half-dozen Gulfstream and jet aviation services in China, which remains heavily reliant on foreign aerospace technology even as it seeks to build its own presence in the field.

The company also helps produce the Abrams tank being purchased by Taiwan to replace aging armor intended to deter or resist an invasion from China.

Customary Atomics produces the Predator and Reaper drones used by the U.S. military.

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AP writers Didi Tang and Fatima Hussein contributed reporting.