President Joe Biden has denied press reports that China has sent bulletproof weapons and armor to Russia.
“For three months, I heard that China would supply Russia with major weapons… However, this has not happened. It doesn’t mean they won’t do it, but they haven’t done it yet,” Biden said in a press conference during his trip to Canada. “I don’t take China lightly. I do not take Russia lightly. “
Biden spits out the idea of a China-Russia deal despite Xi Jinping’s recent trip to Moscow.
What did he send to China?
China sent samples of the US M16 rifle, made by North Industry Group Corporation Limited (Norinco), to a Russian company called Tekhkrim that does business with Moscow’s military. The ships were designated as clear “civilian hunting rifles,” a March 16 Politico report claimed. He explained that data provided by the US aggregator site ImportGenius indicated that the shipments were made between the months of June and December.
Ports of information provided to Russian entities were also disclosed. The data shows that Turkey has made a transition between the Chinese and the Russians. Some of the information on the equipment came from the Chinese company Xinxing Guangzhou Import & Export Co.
Ltd. US-sanctioned Chinese drone manufacturer Da-Jiang Innovations Science & Technology Co, aka DJI Technology, shipped drone parts through a Russian-based distributor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November and December. Parts included cameras and batteries. This company maintains close ties with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Didn’t China really send weapons?
So far, Politico has acknowledged that there is no evidence that Tekhrim sent Chinese guns to Ukraine. However, DJI Technology’s drones have been active in Ukraine for months. Russian forces have used them to shoot down cannons and other small munitions in Ukrainian military areas.
But DJI has denied supplying its drones to either side of the competition since it began more than a year ago. Claims by the Chinese company that it has stopped selling its paints in Russia or Ukraine have been widely disputed by the Ukrainian side.
China-Russia Relations: A Global Threat
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described the relationship between Russia and China as a “marriage of convenience” and called it “a very young dream”.
The Chinese ambassador denied Politico’s claims.
“China did not create a crisis. It is not a party to the crisis and has not provided weapons to either side of the conflict,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy, told Politico.
German Chancellor Olavi Scholz earlier this month warned of serious “consequences” if reports of Chinese military hardware being shipped to Russia for use in Ukraine were confirmed.
“Everybody agrees that there are no weapons to hand, and the Chinese government has issued an order that no one should hand over weapons,” said Scholz. “That’s what we’re asking and looking at.”
He reminds the United States
The United States believes political dual-use items that could be used for military purposes have already shipped from China to Russia, Blinken said last month.
“We have already begun to see sanctions against people who” [trasladan] military material to Russia. I’m sure the EU and other countries are targeting people who help get a lot of this stuff from Russia,” James Byrne of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank based in Russia, told the British politician.
