China is helping Russia ramp up its defense industrial base at such a large scale that Moscow is now undertaking its most ambitious expansion in military manufacturing since the Soviet era as it continues its war against Ukraine, according to senior Biden administration officials.

The support China is providing includes significant quantities of machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and technology for cruise missiles, microelectronics, and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make propellant for weapons, said the officials.

Chinese and Russian entitles have also been working jointly to produce drones inside of Russia, one of the officials said.

The support from China is having a significant impact on Russia’s ability to continue its assault on Ukraine, while Ukraine’s military has been plagued with equipment and weapon shortages. The challenge for Ukraine is exacerbated by Republicans in the US Congress continuing to block a vote on a new American military aid package to Kyiv.

“One of the most game changing moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC (People’s Republic of China) to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base. Russia would struggle to sustain its war effort without PRC inputs,” said a senior administration official, adding that Chinese “materials are filling critical gaps in Russia’s defense production cycle.”

Just this week Gen. Chris Cavoli, the commander of US European Command, told lawmakers that Russia has been “quite successful” at reconstituting its military since it invaded Ukraine more than 2 years ago, and its capacity has largely “grown back” to what it was before the invasion. US officials are now making clear that China is largely responsible for that rapid build-up.

As a demonstration of this deepening China-Russia partnership: in 2023, 90% of Russia’s micro-electronics imports came from China, which Russia has used to produce missiles, tanks, and aircraft, a second official said.

And Russia’s rapidly expanding production of artillery rounds is due, in large part, to the nitrocellulose coming from China, officials said. This comes as Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, CNN reported earlier this year.

Beyond the defense hardware, China is helping Russia to improve its satellite and other space based capabilities for use in Ukraine, and providing imagery to Russia for its war on Ukraine, the officials said.

Some of this information comes from downgraded US intelligence, officials said.

The support from China is compensating for the significant setbacks that Russia’s defense industry experienced early in the Ukraine war due to US sanctions and export controls.

President Joe Biden raised concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month, following other officials repeatedly raising the concerns with their Chinese counterparts, officials said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also raised the matter with US allies during his recent Europe trip, the officials said. The US has not seen any interruption to the ongoing Chinese support since that Biden-Xi phone call, though sometimes it takes time to see changes come to fruition.

China continues to steer clear of providing Russia with lethal weaponry, which the US has warned against since the beginning of the Ukraine war, but in many cases the inputs can be just as impactful as lethal weaponry.

US officials said it is imperative for the US and its allies to persuade China to stop this practice, though success will be hard to measure. Earlier this year Xi heralded a new year of growing coordination with Russia during a call with President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this month Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen delivered China a warning of “significant consequences” if Chinese companies provide support to Russia for the Ukraine war during her trip to the country.

The Biden administration also issued an executive order targeting third country banks that facilitate support to the Russian defense industrial base and following that action the US has been touch with banks around the world to build up compliance systems to avoid inadvertently being caught up in this trade, which would result in US sanctions.

China supplying Russia with cruise missile, drone and tank parts, warns US

China is providing Moscow with cruise missile, drone and tank parts, fuelling the biggest Russian military expansion since Soviet times, the US has warned.

US defence officials warned that China is propping up Russia’s defence industrial base, funnelling weapons technology towards the war in Ukraine.

Joe Biden, the US president, raised concerns directly with Xi Jinping on April 2, warning the premier that the United States was unhappy with China’s huge support for the Russian military.

On Friday, a Biden administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, accused China of helping Moscow to meet its “most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible early on in this conflict”.

The US official told Reuters: “Our view is that one of the most game-changing moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC [China] to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base.”

The official added: “Russia would struggle to sustain its war effort without PRC input.”

China is accused of supplying Russia with machine tools to increase its ballistic missile production, which has allowed Vladimir Putin’s forces to outgun Ukraine on the battlefield.

Working jointly on drones

Beijing is also thought to have provided Russia with drone engines, cruise-missile turbojet engines and nitrocellulose, a chemical compound used to make propellants for weapons.

US intelligence suggests Chinese and Russian companies have worked jointly to produce drones inside Russia, while Chinese companies have worked to improve Russia’s satellite and space-based capabilities and supplied satellite imagery for military purposes.

The US said that five Chinese companies were providing optical components for use in Russian tanks and armoured vehicles. They are Wuhan Global Sensor Technology Co; Wuhan Tongsheng Technology Co Ltd; Hikvision; iRay Technology; and the North China Research Institute of Electro-Optics.

Overall, the officials claimed, about 90 per cent of Russia’s microelectronics used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft came from China, alongside 70 per cent of Russia’s approximately $900 million in machine tools that had been imported in the last quarter of 2023.

Janet Yellen, US treasury secretary, told Chinese officials on a visit to Beijing this week “that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia’s war, and that they will face significant consequences if they do”.

Trade between China and Russia reached a record $240 billion in 2023, according to Bloomberg, as supplies of goods and materials from the West have been choked off by Western sanctions. At the same time, Russia has boosted exports of coal and oil to China.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is reported to have briefed European allies this week on the scope and significance of China’s support. He is expected to travel to China later this month for talks in his second trip in less than a year.

‘Prudent and responsible’

Qin Gang, China’s top foreign minister, said in April last year that it would not sell weapons to either side, saying it had adopted “a prudent and responsible attitude”, and that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use “in accordance with laws and regulations”.

That came after Mr Blinken said the US had intelligence suggesting China was considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia – and warned that such involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort would be a “serious problem.”

Separately, China has announced rare sanctions against two US arms makers, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems, over what Beijing called their support for arms sales to Taiwan.

US intelligence finding shows China surging equipment sales to Russia to help war effort in Ukraine

China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine, according to a U.S. assessment.

Two senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sensitive findings Friday on the condition of anonymity, said that in 2023 about 90% of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft. Nearly 70% of Russia’s approximately $900 million in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 came from China.

Chinese and Russian entities have also been working to jointly produce unmanned aerial vehicles inside Russia, and Chinese companies are likely providing Russia with nitrocellulose used in the manufacture of ammunition, the officials said. China-based companies Wuhan Global Sensor Technology Co., Wuhan Tongsheng Technology Co. Ltd. and Hikvision are providing optical components for use in Russian tanks and armored vehicles.

The officials said Russia has received military optics for use in tanks and armored vehicles manufactured by Chinese firms iRay Technology and North China Research Institute of Electro-Optics, and China has been providing Russia with UAV engines and turbojet engines for cruise missiles.

Russia’s semiconductor imports from China jumped from $200 million in 2021 to over $500 million in 2022, according to Russian customs data analyzed by the Free Russia Foundation, a group that advocates for civil society development.

Beijing is also working with Russia to improve its satellite and other space-based capabilities for use in Ukraine, a development the officials say could in the longer term increase the threat Russia poses across Europe. The officials, citing downgraded intelligence findings, said the U.S. has also determined that China is providing imagery to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The officials discussed the findings as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks. Blinken is scheduled to travel next week to the Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Capri, Italy, where he's expected to raise concerns about China's growing indirect support for Russia as Moscow revamps its military and looks to consolidate recent gains in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has previously raised his concerns directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Beijing indirectly supporting Russia’s war effort.

While China has not provided direct lethal military support for Russia, it has backed it diplomatically in blaming the West for provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch the war and refrained from calling it an invasion in deference to the Kremlin.

China has repeatedly said it isn’t providing Russia with arms or military assistance, although it has maintained robust economic connections with Moscow, alongside India and other countries, amid sanctions from Washington and its allies.

“The normal trade between China and Russia should not be interfered or restricted," said Liu Pengyu, spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Washington. “We urge the U.S. side to refrain from disparaging and scapegoating the normal relationship between China and Russia.”

Xi met in Beijing on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who heaped praise on Xi's leadership.

Russia’s growing economic and diplomatic isolation has made it increasingly reliant on China, its former rival for leadership of the Communist bloc during the Cold War.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who returned to Washington this week from a visit to Beijing, said she warned Chinese officials that the Biden administration was prepared to sanction Chinese banks, companies and Beijing’s leadership, if they assist Russia’s armed forces with its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Democratic president issued an executive order in December giving Yellen the authority to sanction financial institutions that aided Russia’s military-industrial complex.

“We continue to be concerned about the role that any firms, including those in the PRC, are playing in Russia’s military procurement,” Yellen told reporters, using the initials for the People's Republic of China. "I stressed that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia’s war and that they will face significant consequences if they do. And I reinforced that any banks that facilitate significant transactions that channel military or dual-use goods to Russia’s defense industrial base expose themselves to the risk of U.S. sanctions.”

The U.S. has frequently downgraded and unveiled intelligence findings about Russia’s plans and operations over the course of the more than 2-year-old war with Ukraine.

Such efforts have been focused on highlighting plans for Russian misinformation operations or to throw attention on Moscow’s difficulties in prosecuting its war against Ukraine as well as its coordination with Iran and North Korea to supply it with badly needed weaponry. Blinken last year spotlighted intelligence that showed China was considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia.

The White House believes that the public airing of the intelligence findings has led China, at least for now, to hold off on directly arming Russia. China's economy has also been slow to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese officials could be sensitive to reaction from European capitals, which have maintained closer ties to Beijing even as the U.S.-China relationship has become more complicated.

Meanwhile, China on Thursday announced rare sanctions against two U.S. defense companies over what it called their support for arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy Beijing claims as its own territory to be recovered by force if necessary.

The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held within China. It also bars the companies’ management from entering the country.

Filings show General Dynamics operates a half-dozen Gulfstream and jet aviation services operations in China, which remains heavily reliant on foreign aerospace technology even as it attempts to build its own presence in the field.

The company also helps make the Abrams tank being purchased by Taiwan to replace outdated armor intended to deter or resist an invasion from China.

General Atomics produces the Predator and Reaper drones used by the U.S. military.