China’s involvement in Putin’s invasion deepens

Mark O'Neill December 18, 2025 10:48

China’s participation in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is deepening every month. President Xi Jinping cannot allow a Russian defeat.

In a speech in Berlin on November 11, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that China was Russia’s lifeline: “Without its support, Russia could not continue to wage this war. About 80 per cent of critical electronic components in Russian drones and other systems are made in China.

“When civilians die in Kyiv or Kharkiv, Chinese technology is often inside the weapons that killed them. China wants to prevent its ally from losing in Ukraine,” he said.

Wang Dinghua, owner of a major Chinese drone parts supplier, has bought five per cent of the shares in Rustakt, a manufacturer of the VT-40 first-person-view drone widely used by Russia in attacks on Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on November 11.

Wang owns Shenzhen Minghuaxin and other companies in the city. They have been big suppliers of drone parts to Rustakt and its allied companies.

This investment marks a new level of co-operation between a Chinese company and a Russian military supplier. According to Russian customs records, Minghuaxin has since 2023 supplied Rustakt with US$304 million of parts, including US$110 million of lithium-ion batteries and US$87 million of motors. Rustakt is subject to sanctions by the European Union and Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said that China had never provided lethal weapons to either side of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and strictly controlled and managed civil-military dual-use technologies.

Another novelty was the first issue by Russia’s Finance Ministry of Renminbi bonds in early December. It issued 20 billion yuan of government bonds, with more than half bought by banks. This debt sale is far the largest of a wave of countries that have shifted to renminbi borrowing this year. Beijing is eager to promote the international use of its currency and challenge the dominance of the U.S. dollar.

Of the debt,12 billion are bonds maturing in 2029 with a yield of six per cent, and eight billion maturing in 2033 with a yield of seven per cent. That makes the bonds attractive to Russian firms who have to pay domestic interest rates of more than 16 per cent and deal with inflation of seven per cent.

At the sixth Sino-Russian Conference for Small and Medium Firms in Xian on November 25, Russian officials said that 13,000 Chinese companies had registered in Russia, surpassing the total from Western countries.

The main sectors for Chinese investment are retail, automobiles, auto parts and electronics. Great Wall Motor, Chery Motor and BYD, Haier and Xiaomi have established strong presences in the Russian market, replacing western brands who pulled out after the war.

China is the only country, and Xi himself the only leader, with leverage over President Vladimir Putin.

Since the end of 2022, China has bought nearly half of Russia’s oil exports, including US$7 billion in October, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. These energy purchases, the high level of trade and supply of key components to Russia’s arms industry gives Beijing substantial leverage.

During a visit to Beijing in early December, French President Emmanuel Macron asked Xi to use that leverage.

This month Europe and the United States are making their most sustained effort to end the war, which will enter its fourth year in February next year.

“We must continue to work towards peace and stability in the world, and in Ukraine and other regions affected by war,” Macron told Xi. “I hope that China will join our call and our efforts to achieve, as soon as possible, at least a ceasefire in the form of a moratorium on strikes targeting critical infrastructure.”

All Xi would say was: “China supports all efforts committed to peace and hopes that all parties will reach a fair, lasting and binding peace agreement that is acceptable to all parties.” It has never condemned the invasion. As far as is publicly known, Beijing has played no role in the current round of negotiations.

In his Berlin speech, Rutte spelt out the catastrophic cost of the war to the two sides. “Since the war began, Russia has had over 1.1 million casualties. This year it has lost on average 1,200 troops a day, killed or wounded.

“Putin is doing a good job of destroying Russia all by himself. Its economy is now geared to wage war, not to make its people prosperous. It is spending nearly 40 per cent of its budget on aggression, and around 70 per cent of all machine tools in Russia are used in military production. Taxes are going up, inflation has skyrocketed and petrol is rationed.”

Is that what President Xi wants?

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.