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China may have not sent a single soldier or bullet to Russia − but it has single-handedly kept Vladimir Putin’s war machine afloat. Beijing’s role in the more than three-year-long invasion was thrust into the limelight when Kyiv revealed that it had captured two Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said it was evidence of a third country directly supporting Moscow’s attack on his country.
A video shared on his social media feeds purported to show a Chinese man, wearing military uniform and with his hands tied, being held in custody. Among the documents found on one of the Chinese fighters was a Russian military contract that tied the 33-year-old, from the eastern province of Henan, to one year’s service as a private. Another document revealed how the man had arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on February 8 on a visa obtained two weeks before.
He had been issued with a Russian social security number and tax code. Read more In the initial furore, Western officials said there was no evidence that this was a state-sponsored deployment by Beijing. Their assessment could be backed up by the fact that purported video evidence showed Chinese men within the Russian ranks sporting Moscow-issued uniforms and cheap tactical gear.
The only regular soldiers known to have officially entered the war have come from North Korea, and their presence has been restricted to Russian territory in the Kursk region. In response to the accusations, China denied that it had contributed troops towards Russia’s war in Ukraine, rejecting the claims as “groundless”. This still does not take away from the fact that Beijing has played a major role in the conflict.
China’s official position is clear. Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, says his country did not start the Ukraine war and is not a party to or a participant in it. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Photo: Getty Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, told the Munich Security Conference that China was “not directly concerned in the conflict, but was not standing idly by”. In 2023, in an attempt to show its neutrality, Beijing tabled what it said was a 10-point peace plan to end the war. But Kyiv and its Western backers accused China of parroting Russian talking points, including an immediate ceasefire cementing Moscow’s control over some Ukrainian territory.
At a summit in Washington last summer, Nato allies said China was a “decisive enabler”. Western officials reached this conclusion because of the sheer scale of trade between China and Russia. In 2023, China saved a reported $10bn by purchasing crude oil from sanctioned countries, including Iran and Russia, according to an Atlantic Council report.
In 2024, some 108.5 million metric tons were imported from Russia, including through pipelines and sea deliveries, equivalent to nearly 2.17 million barrels per day, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
While much of this is below the usual market value, it is enough to keep much-needed funds to fuel Putin’s war machine. When the former US president Joe Biden slapped sanctions on 183 vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet in February, volumes dropped significantly. But instead, Chinese coal imports from Russia rose 10pc between January and February.
Chinese support has, as we know, for quite some time been a very important part of Russia’s ability to continue producing weapons for use in this war Lin Jian, from China’s foreign ministry, said: “It is reasonable for Chinese companies to carry out normal economic and trade co-operation with countries around the world, including Russia.” The two countries share what they have described as a “no-limits friendship”, which was formalised in a recent partnership treaty. Putin and Xi have met at least four times since the beginning of the war, including a state visit by the Russian president to Beijing that was his first foreign trip after re-election in May last year.
The pair celebrated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries in Russia’s Kazan last October. China has supplied Moscow with various dual-use technologies, including drones, that are used on the battlefield. “China provides nearly 80pc of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war,” Tammy Bruce, of the US State Department, said.
“Continued co-operation between these two nuclear powers will only further contribute to global instability and make the United States and other countries less safe, less secure and less prosperous.” Ruined apartment buildings in the abandoned town of Maryinka, which was destroyed in the course of Russia's war in Ukraine. Photo: Reuters It is said Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine and normalise relations with Russia are about breaking this link.
China is a major supplier of computer numerical control machines, which are key to the production of missiles and other arms manufacturing. It accounts for about 70pc of the precision machine tools sold to Moscow, essentially keeping Russia’s sanction-stricken defence industry afloat, according to Western officials. “There’s certainly still very much a relationship there that is important for the Russian defence industrial base and the trajectory of that, I would say, has remained pretty consistent,” said a senior Nato official.
“Chinese support has, as we know, for quite some time been a very important part of Russia’s ability to continue producing weapons for use in this war. It’s also absolutely critical for Russia’s ultimate reconstitution plans that Putin has for after the war ends.” Philip Shetler‐Jones, a senior research fellow on Indo‐Pacific security at the Royal United Services Institute, said: “As with so many issues, this is seen from Beijing through the lens of China’s struggle with America.
“In time, it may prove China forfeited some of its own legitimacy as a trustworthy global leader for short-term gain, but so far it has not been made to pay any price for its support to Vladimir Putin.” China may plead neutrality − but, in the shadows, it is one of the war’s most significant participants. Read more.
