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Beijing is stealing Russian military technology on a massive scale and violating licensing agreements, while becoming a key supplier of components to the Russian army.
Espionage, hacker attacks and massive copying of technologies – these are the realities of Sino-Russian defence relations, despite the ostentatious diplomatic “friendship”. These are the findings of a new study by the ChinaPower think tank.
Over the past two decades, China has attacked Russian defence enterprises at least 21 times, primarily in the field of aerospace technology. At least 11 criminal cases in Russia concern the leakage of secret military technologies to Beijing.
“Copies instead of contracts”
Between 2009 and 2023, China’s imports of Russian weapons decreased by 40% compared to the previous 15-year period. Russia’s share of total Chinese arms imports fell from 85% to 68%. The reasons are not only the war in Ukraine, but also Beijing’s systematic violation of licences.
Well-known examples are:
- J-11 is a replica of the Russian Su-27 fighter jet;
- HQ-9 is an analogue of the S-300 anti-aircraft system;
- Massive cloning of engines, attack aircraft, air defence systems and Pantsyr air defence systems.
In 2019, the state-owned Rostec Corporation publicly accused China for the first time of more than 500 cases of illegal copying of Russian military products.
“The Chinese copy everything from deck-mounted fighters to man-portable air defence systems. Then they refuse contracts and launch their own production,” the official statement said.
Dependency and reciprocal cooperation
Despite being copied, China remains a critical supplier to the Russian military-industrial complex, especially in the face of Western sanctions. According to the US National Intelligence Agency, Beijing continues to supply dual-use products:
- semiconductors,
- drones,
- components for fighter aircraft,
- equipment of the RBM,
- CNC machines, without which Russia cannot produce weapons.
The financial scale of the cooperation is impressive: from January 2022 to July 2023, monthly exports of such machines from China to Russia increased from $7 billion to more than $68 billion.
Nevertheless, Beijing officially denies any arms sales to Russia.
