Russia and China have long been allies, but there are new indications that they may be taking their military alliance to unprecedented heights: a report released last week indicated that Russia might be helping China’s armed forces gear up for a potential invasion of Taiwan. This would include the sale of Russian weapons to China and the sharing of expertise in airborne combat, which would mark another episode in a series of escalating tensions between China and Taiwan.
‘Growing military-industrial cooperation’
The report of increasing military ties comes from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British think tank. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed China’s forces to be “ready to militarily seize Taiwan by 2027,” and Russia has agreed to supply China with a “complete set of weapons and equipment to equip an airborne battalion, as well as other special equipment necessary for airborne infiltration of special forces,” said the RUSI report. Russia will also be providing a “full cycle of training for operators and technical personnel to use this equipment” as part of a “growing military-industrial cooperation.”
The deal reportedly includes the sale of Russian assault vehicles, anti-tank weapons and airborne personnel carriers to China. This agreement will also allow China to “access training and technology in one of the few areas where Russian capabilities still surpass those of the Chinese military: Russia’s more experienced airborne troops,” said The Washington Post. It is generally accepted that China’s military has greater capabilities than Russia’s, but China “lags behind Moscow in airborne combat experience and capabilities for air maneuver, which Russia has deployed in Ukraine and Syria.”
China wants its troops to learn the “capacity to airdrop armor vehicles on golf courses, or other areas of open and firm ground near Taiwan’s ports and airfields,” said the RUSI report. This would “allow air assault troops to significantly increase their combat power and threaten seizure of these facilities to clear a path for the landing of follow-on forces.”
‘Playing the long game’
China is also looking to shore up its military with Russian technology in other areas. Chinese military experts could “find a way to reverse engineer the equipment and technology and develop it not just for airborne combat but also for advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” Wen-Ti Sung, an expert on China and Taiwan with the Atlantic Council, told The Associated Press. By acquiring Russian technology and training, China is “playing the long game.”
But the bigger picture for China, according to experts, is finalizing efforts for a mainland invasion of Taiwan. Improving its airborne capabilities could “help China one day achieve its aim of taking Taiwan, the self-governing island of 23 million, which Beijing claims as its territory,” said CNN. The region has long been fraught with geopolitical conflicts; the Philippines is “one of many nations with which China has overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.”
These close ties between Russia and China are hardly new; the two countries have “traded arms since the 1990s,” said CNN. But in recent years their “military partnership has become more robust” as ties between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have warmed, “raising alarm bells in Washington.” It comes as Russia has also “turned to China to replace Europe as its major gas buyer, since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”
Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
