If there’s a will, there’s a way: China finds loophole in the West’s attempts to hobble Russian armed forces

07/27/2023 / By Laura Harris

Evidence has emerged that China is supplying Russia with dual-use military technology, such as protective gear, drones and thermal optical sights.

According to customs records, Shanghai H Win, a Chinese manufacturer of military-grade protective gear, has been providing Russia with large orders of bulletproof vests and helmets. Customs data revealed that Russian buyers have declared orders for hundreds of thousands of bulletproof vests and helmets matching those listed in the online catalog of Shanghai H Win.

Dual-use technology, which can have both civilian and military uses, allows the Chinese to maintain plausible deniability and makes it challenging for Western countries to directly accuse them of helping the Russians. Meaning, China has found a loophole in the West’s attempts to hobble the Russian armed forces.

Russia has imported more than $100 million-worth of drones from China so far this year, which is 30 times more than Ukraine. And Chinese exports to Russia of ceramics, a component used in body armor, increased by 69 percent to more than $225 million, while exports of the same product to Ukraine dropped by 61 percent to a mere $5 million.

“What is very clear is that China, for all its claims that it is a neutral actor, is in fact supporting Russia’s positions in this war,” said Helena Legarda, a lead analyst specializing in Chinese defense and foreign policy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a Berlin think tank. (Related: DOUBLE AGENT? China supplies drones to both Ukraine and Russia.)

“Then there’s this situation that we’re in at the moment, all these dual-use components or equipment and how you handle those. I would not expect the EU [European Union] to be able to agree to sanctions on that.”

China is benefiting from Russia-Ukraine war

China is reaping benefits from selling its military equipment through private channels.

A sales representative from Shanghai H Win revealed that multiple trading companies have sought their products following the war’s outbreak, making inquiries on bulletproof vests.

POLITICO uncovered evidence of deals between Shanghai H Win and several Russian companies through the registry of declarations of conformity.

Silva, located in Eastern Siberia’s Buryatia region, is one of those companies. It declared orders for 100,000 bulletproof vests and 100,000 helmets from Shanghai H Win. However, a Google Street View search of the address raised suspicions about its legitimacy as it revealed a dilapidated apartment block.

Rika, another Russian company, declared shipments of body armor and helmets from Shanghai H Win while denying its Chinese origins. Legittelekom, a Moscow-based freight forwarding company, also appeared as a buyer of 100,000 headgear items and 100,000 suits of outerwear from Deekon Shanghai, an affiliated company sharing an address with Shanghai H Win.

Furthermore, Pozitron, a company from Rostov-on-Don, imported goods worth over $60 million, including “airsoft helmets” and ceramics, from Chinese firm Beijing KRNatural for “civilian purposes.” The Chinese company was also linked to shipments of drones known to have been used in the Ukrainian conflict.

Pozitron reported a revenue increase from 31 million rubles in 2021 to 20 billion rubles in 2022.

Visit RussiaReport.news for more news related to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

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