Hong Kong, Oct 3 (UNI) Russia has agreed to help China equip and train an airborne battalion, according to leaked documents reviewed by a leading think tank, illustrating the ever-deepening military partnership between Beijing and Moscow.
Russia in 2023 agreed to sell a suite of military equipment to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including assault vehicles, anti-tank guns, and airborne armored personnel carriers, according to documents leaked by the Black Moon hacktivist group and verified by the British think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), reoorts CNN.
The armoured vehicles would be equipped with Chinese comms and command-and-control suites, and Russia would train a battalion of Chinese paratroopers to use them, according to the approximately 800 pages of contracts and additional materials reviewed by RUSI.
Under the terms of the agreement, Russia would also transfer technologies to China, that will allow it to make similar weapons, RUSI’s review of the documents shows.
The agreement, if fully implemented, would bolster China’s air maneuver capabilities, one of the few areas where Moscow’s military still has an edge over the PLA. And improving in that area could – according to RUSI experts – help China one day achieve its aim of taking Taiwan, the self-governing island of 23 million which Beijing claims as its territory.
“Russia is equipping and training Chinese special forces groups to penetrate the territory of other countries without being noticed, offering offensive options against Taiwan, the Philippines and other island states in the region,” RUSI fellows Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Jack Watling wrote in an analysis of the deal.
Moscow and Beijing increasingly view their close relationship as critical to achieving their respective goals. Earlier this month, Putin said the bilateral relationship was at an “unprecedentedly high level” as the two countries reportedly inked a long-stalled agreement to build a massive new pipeline to send natural gas to China via Mongolia. Moscow has increasingly turned to China to replace Europe as its major gas buyer, since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow and Bejing have also been ramping up their joint military drills in recent years, including joint naval patrols around Japan and air and sea patrols off Alaska. In August, they conducted their first-ever joint submarine patrol in the Pacific, according to reports in state-run media.
China and Russia conducted 14 joint military drills in 2024, the most since the two countries started doing drills together in 2003, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The greatest benefit of the 2023 deal for Beijing, according to the RUSI fellows, would be in the training of the airborne battalion, since Russia’s forces have combat experience in that area, while China’s do not.
If China were to attack Taiwan, an air maneuver would likely be the most effective way to get key troops and equipment onto the island in the early stages of an operation – although any attempt to invade and hold the island would likely require a huge and very difficult amphibious assault by sea.
According to the agreement, the training would be carried out partly in Russia and partly in China. Russian instructors would then train the Chinese airborne battalion at training grounds in China, preparing the soldiers for landing, fire control and maneuvering.
