Despite sanctions, Moscow equips its jet fighters, submarines and soldiers with help of Chinese companies
A Chinese state-owned firm has shipped parts for Su-35 jet fighters to a subsidiary of a sanctioned Russian government-owned company; Russian Sukhoi Su-35s at a Moscow airshow in 2019. LEONID FAERBERG/RUSSIAN LOOK/ZUMA PRESS
By Ian
Talley and Anthony DeBarros
Feb. 4, 2023 9:00 am ET
WASHINGTON—China is
providing technology that Moscow’s military needs to prosecute the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine 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 its
invasion 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.
China’s backing for
Russia while it wages war on Ukraine was supposed to be
on the agenda for discussion during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s travels
to Beijing this weekend. That trip was indefinitely postponed Friday after the
Pentagon said that it had tracked a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the
continental U.S. earlier in the week.
Chinese state-owned defense companies have shipped navigation equipment and other military gear to sanctioned Russian companies, customs records show. The Yangshan deep-water port in Shanghai.PHOTO: CFOTO/DDP/ZUMA PRESS
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 warfare.
Western officials said
their economic pressure campaign launched last February would cripple Moscow’s
war machine 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
are accused by Western officials 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, D.C., 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 offers substantial evidence of how Russia is able to
sidestep the centerpiece of the West’s response to Russia’s war against
Ukraine.
“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.
“These Russian companies have been recorded using these same types of parts
directly in Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
To tighten the
enforcement of the international pressure campaign, U.S. officials have said
they are investigating the export of banned products and business dealings,
trying to wrangle compliance through diplomatic outreach around the world, and
have said they are preparing sanctions against new targets thought to be
facilitating the Kremlin’s war.
On Wednesday, the U.S.
Treasury Department added to its sanction rolls nearly two dozen individuals
and the companies they are allegedly using to procure weapons and other goods
for Russian state defense firms.
Just before Russia’s
full-scale assault on Ukraine last February, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” partnership aimed at
countering the U.S. Since the invasion, Beijing has attempted to strike a
cautious balance, saying it is opposed to the war in Ukraine while keeping its
diplomatic, financial and trade ties open to Russia.
“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. Mr. Liu reiterated the long-held view by Beijing
that China opposes what it calls unilateral sanctions that have no basis under
international law.
The customs records
include examples of exports of parts for the type of weapons used by Russian
forces in Ukraine.
China’s state-owned
defense company Poly Technologies on Aug. 31, 2022, shipped navigation
equipment to Russia’s state-owned military export firm JSC Rosoboronexport for
M-17 military transport helicopters. Earlier that month, Chinese electronics
firm Fujian Nanan Baofeng Electronic Co. supplied to Rosoboronexport—through an
Uzbek state-owned defense firm—a telescoping antenna for the RB-531BE military
vehicle, which is used for communications jamming. On Oct. 24, Chinese
state-owned aircraft firm AVIC International Holding Corp. shipped to AO Kret,
a subsidiary of sanctioned government-owned defense giant Rostec, $1.2 million
worth of parts for Su-35 jet fighters.
Wang Shaofeng, general
manager of Fujian Baofeng Electronics Co., said in an emailed response that a
third party may be illegally using his firm’s name, and that it doesn’t include
“Nanan.” He also said his company doesn’t produce telescoping antennas and
doesn’t have a record of shipping to any Uzbek state-owned defense firm. “This
report lacks factual basis and is inconsistent with the facts,” Mr. Wang said.
U.S. Federal
Communications Commission documents filed by Fujian Nanan Baofeng Electronic
Co. for U.S. sales of two-way radios record matching contact details and are
signed by a “Wang Shao Feng.”
The other Chinese and
Russian firms didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In the past, Russian
officials have said they would adapt to the Western sanctions campaign by
turning to Asia, including China.
Other foreign-government
suppliers found in the customs data include China Taly Aviation Technologies
Corp., a procurement unit of China’s Air Force Equipment Department. The
Chinese aviation company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Among that firm’s
shipments were parts sent on Oct. 4 to Russia’s sanctioned state-owned
missile-manufacturer Almaz Antey for use on the 96L6E mobile radar unit. Russia
uses the radar to detect enemy jet fighter, missiles and drones as part of its
S-400 antiaircraft missile system being used in Ukraine, according to arms
analysts. The Russian firm didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Kret and a host of other
Russian companies that contract with the government’s intelligence, military
and security services also used privately held Chinese firms. Sinno
Electronics, sanctioned late last year by the U.S. Treasury Department for
allegedly procuring banned goods for Russia’s defense sector, was one of the
most prolific exporters of dual-use goods, sending more than 1,300 shipments
between April and October worth more than $2 million, according to customs
data. Neither Kret nor Sinno Electronics responded to requests for
comment.
The data also shows
shipments of Chinese DJI quadcopters to Russia after the sanctions and export
controls were imposed. Military analysts say the drones are being used by the
Russian forces to locate and surveil Ukrainian forces, then target them with
artillery.
Some of these drones are
delivered directly by a Chinese retailer to Russian distributors, according to
customs records, but other DJI quadcopters transit through the United Arab
Emirates. The emirates’ embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t respond to requests
for comment.
DJI said the company
opposes military use of its drones, suspended its operations in Russia in April
and requires global agents to comply. The company added, however, “We cannot
stop users or organizations from buying in countries or regions other than
Russia and Ukraine, and then transporting or giving them to Russia and
Ukraine.”
Among the supplies
critical to Moscow’s war efforts, U.S. officials say, are the computer chips
that are used in weapons that target Ukrainian forces and infrastructure, and
in electronic circuitry that makes possible satellite geolocating, radio
communication, surveillance and navigation systems.
Exports of such chips
and associated components were more than cut in half after the U.S. and its
allies first imposed strict export restrictions, according to the customs
records. But those levels quickly began to rise, and by October hit nearly $33
million, just shy of the $35 million monthly level Russia averaged since the
U.S. started targeting Russia with sanctions in 2014 after Putin’s army
occupied Crimea, according to the Journal’s analysis of the Russian custom
records and the United Nations’ Comtrade database.
Unlike previous
export-control regimes that banned the direct provision of certain dual use
goods, Western authorities in February said they were targeting the entire
supply chain. That means transshipments—goods produced in third countries using
U.S. dual-use items, such as chips, that are then shipped to Russia—are also
targeted.
Silverado Policy
Accelerator, a Washington-based think tank that seeks to bolster U.S.
competitiveness, said in a report published this month that Russia is
increasingly relying on transshipments of dual-use goods through China, and
especially Hong Kong, to meet its military needs.
“These measures have had
a pretty significant impact on Russia’s capabilities,” said Sarah Stewart,
chief executive of Silverado, referring to the allied sanctions and export
controls, “but they have not yet delivered a death blow.”
Write to Ian Talley
at Ian.Talley@wsj.com and Anthony
DeBarros at anthony.debarros@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-aids-russias-war-in-ukraine-trade-data-shows-11675466360
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