Russia will equip and train Chinese air battalion, leaked documents reviewed by think tank show

By Lex Harvey, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — 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).

The armored 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.

The Philippines is one of many nations with which China has overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea. Vessels from both countries regularly clash in the region, as Beijing becomes more assertive in its claims.

CNN has not independently reviewed the leaked documents, and it is not clear whether the deal has been fully implemented. CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of National Defense and Russia’s defense ministry for comment.

Russia and China have traded arms since the 1990s, but in the past decade their military partnership has become more robust as ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have warmed, raising alarm bells in Washington.

Xi, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood side by side last month at a Chinese military parade, in an unprecedented show of solidarity against the US and its allies.

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.

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