China is backing Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by helping Moscow in its biggest military buildup since the Soviet era, providing drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, senior U.S. officials said on Friday.
However, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said it has not provided weaponry to any party, adding that it is “not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis.”
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. President Joe Biden raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in their recent phone call and that it is a topic of discussion with U.S. allies in Europe and around the world.
One official said Chinese materials are filing critical gaps in Russia’s defense production cycle and helping Moscow undertake its “most ambitious defense expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible early on in this conflict.”
Some of the information provided by the U.S. officials in a small briefing with reporters was based on declassified intelligence. They sketched a wide array of ways China is helping Russia’s two-year war against Ukraine without providing lethal assistance.
President Joe Biden has been pressuring Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives to approve a major infusion of funding for providing weapons to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off the Russians.