Chinese State-Owned Company Secretly Supplied Russia with Chemicals for Drones — Politico
The Chinese state-owned company Jilin Chemical Fiber Group may have supplied Russia with materials for the production of hundreds of kamikaze drones. According to Politico, the shipments may have been disguised to conceal their intended purpose.
The publication reports that documents reviewed by Western governments provide the most compelling evidence to date that a Chinese state-owned corporation continues to provide assistance to a company that is under sanctions and is part of the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex.
According to the report, the company in question is Jilin Chemical Fiber Group—a large Chinese state-owned enterprise that is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of advanced chemical and composite materials.
According to transportation and customs documents, the Chinese firm disguised the shipment of 46 metric tons of carbon fiber chemicals to a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom earlier this year. In particular, this corporation develops key components for kamikaze drones.
Politico notes that Chinese components have long been recovered from Russian drones in Ukraine. However, documents collected from Russian sources by the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation—an organization close to the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers—describe in detail for the first time how a Chinese state-owned company exported components critical to drone production directly to Russia.
According to a U.S. government official, the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China reviewed these documents and deemed them “authentic.”
A Ukrainian official told the publication that the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers had also reviewed the documents and confirmed their authenticity.
“The Chinese state-owned company Jilin Chemical Fiber Group did not respond to numerous requests for comment,” Politico added.
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