Chinese Supplies Fuel Moscow's Ukraine Military Effort

"WASHINGTON -- China is providing technology that Moscow's military needs despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls, according to a Wall Street Journal review of Russian customs data.

The customs records show Chinese state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and jet-fighter parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies.

Those are but a handful of tens of thousands of shipments of dual-use goods -- products that have both commercial and military applications -- that Russia imported following sanctions last year, according to the customs records provided to the Journal by C4ADS, a Washington-based nonprofit that specializes in identifying national-security threats. Most of the dual-use shipments were from China, the records show.

Russia's foreign, defense and economic ministries didn't respond to requests for comment. "Russia has enough technological potential to ensure its security and conduct the special military operation. This potential is constantly being improved," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

While Russia has the capability to produce much of its basic military needs domestically, it relies heavily on imports for dual-use technology, such as semiconductors, that is essential for modern military.

Western officials said their economic-pressure campaign launched last February would cripple Moscow by targeting those exports to Russia, including computer chips, infrared cameras and radar equipment.

But customs and corporate records show Russia is still able to import that technology through countries that haven't joined the U.S.-led efforts to cut off Moscow from global markets. Many of the export-controlled products are still flowing through nations such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, whose governments Western officials accuse of flouting the sanctions and controls. Turkish officials have said the sanctions are ineffective and that Ankara is playing an important role as an interlocutor with Russia. Under pressure from the U.S., Turkey has moved to halt some financial and business ties.

The U.A.E. Embassy in Washington didn't comment.

The records reviewed by the Journal, however, show Chinese companies -- both state-owned and private -- as the dominant exporters of dual-use goods that U.S. officials say are of particular concern.

The Journal analyzed more than 84,000 shipments recorded by Russia's customs office in the period after the West launched the economic pressure campaign that focused on commodities the Biden administration red-flagged as critical to the Russian military.

The official Russian customs records, which C4ADS said might not include all records, detail each shipment into the country, providing dates, shippers, recipients, purchasers, addresses and product descriptions.

The Journal also identified from the records more than a dozen Russian and Chinese companies targeted by the U.S. under the Russia pressure campaign, as well as all other sanctions programs.

Industry and government officials said the data offer substantial evidence of how Russia is able to sidestep the centerpiece of the West's response to Russia.

"Despite international scrutiny and sanctions protocols, reliable global trade data shows that Chinese state-owned defense companies continue to send military-applicable parts to sanctioned Russian defense companies," said Naomi Garcia, an analyst at C4ADS.

"The allegation that China provides 'aid' to Russia has no factual basis, but is purely speculative and deliberately hyped up," Liu Pengyu, China's spokesman at its Washington embassy told the Journal.” [1]

1.  World News: Chinese Supplies Fuel Moscow's Ukraine Military Effort
Talley, Ian; DeBarros, Anthony.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 06 Feb 2023: A.7.