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The US is urging Europe to step up pressure on China to stop providing Russia with weapons-related technology and machinery, including engines for cruise missiles, that Moscow is using in its war in Ukraine.
People familiar with the situation said the US believed European pressure would be critical to convincing Beijing to stop exporting chips, sensors, missile engines and machine tools to help Russia make weapons.
Senior US officials said China had been providing significant help to Russia and that Beijing believed it could avoid crossing any red lines by providing support that technically did not equate to “lethal” assistance. But they said China was providing a range of technology that was being used to manufacture everything from missiles to aircraft.
The officials said Chinese and Russian groups were also working to produce unmanned aerial vehicles inside Russia. They said Chinese entities had also provided Russia with UAV engines in addition to turbojet engines for cruise missiles.
The officials added that 90 per cent of the microelectronics that Russia imported last year came from China and were being used to produce everything from tanks to missiles and aircraft.
China was also helping Russia to improve its satellite and other space-based capabilities to help prosecute its war in Ukraine, and that China was also providing satellite imagery, the officials said.
The US has decided to declassify some previously secret intelligence in order to make the case that more pressure needs to be put on China.
The campaign to press European countries to increase pressure on China comes just two weeks after President Joe Biden raised the issue in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. US officials including secretary of state Antony Blinken have also in recent weeks raised concerns with European capitals about China’s provision of military-related technology to Russia, and pushed allies for help.
People familiar with the situation said China had not provided equipment that was technically deemed as lethal. But they said it was providing goods and technology that were helping Russia to rebuild its defence industrial base and was enabling Moscow to reduce the impact of US and western sanctions and export controls.
“These materials are filling critical gaps in Russia’s defence production cycle. As a result, Russia is undertaking its most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible early on in this conflict,” said one official, adding that China’s support was “key to the revitalisation of Russia’s defence industrial base, which had otherwise suffered significant setbacks due to our sanctions and export controls”.
The officials said several Chinese groups — including Wuhan Global Sensor Technology, Wuhan Tongsheng Technology, and Hikvision — were providing optical components for use in Russian weapons systems, including tanks and armoured vehicles.
They said Russia had also obtained military optics for the weapons from other groups, including iRay Technology and North China Research Institute of Electro-Optics.
The officials added that Chinese entities were also “likely providing” Russia with nitrocellulose, which is used to make propellants for weapons. They said this had enabled Moscow to “rapidly” expand its ability to produce critical munitions, including artillery rounds.
People familiar with the situation said they hoped European countries would raise the issue more forcefully with China in upcoming trips to Beijing.
Olaf Scholz will have an opportunity to convey the message to Xi when he meets him on Tuesday during his second official trip to China as German chancellor. Ahead of the trip, one senior German official said Berlin was “concerned” that China was “delivering goods to Russia 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 make that clear in the talks.”
The German official said China could not wage the war as successfully as at present “without Chinese support”, adding: “There is a clear relationship of dependency on China. It is an enabling relationship.”
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