China has assured Mr Zelensky that China does not supply weapons systems to Russia. Now the South China Morning Post can prove Xi Jinping wrong. The newspaper says it has conclusive evidence to the contrary. The EU and the US have long clung to the hope that China will refrain from siding with Russia.

According to the South China Morning Post, the EU has “conclusive” evidence that China is producing drones for Russia, and not only that.

The drones are reportedly being produced in the notorious Xinjiang region, where the ethnic minority Uighurs according to the UN face oppression and forced labour.

The drones also carry weapons systems, several sources told the same media.

On 25 September, Reuters reported that Russia has a drone factory in China.

Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, according to two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents reviewed by Reuters.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has been developing and flight-testing a new drone model called the Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists, according to one of the documents, a report Kupol submitted to the Russian defence ministry earlier this year outlining the work.

Kupol told the defence ministry in a later update that it was able to produce drones, including the G3, on a large scale at a factory in China so that the weapons could be deployed in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, which is the term Moscow uses for the war.

The G3 drone has a range of up to 2,000 kilometres and can carry a load of 50 kilograms.

The White House says it is disturbing if the manufacture of drones at a Russian factory in China is true and wondered if the authorities were aware of the situation. It is inconceivable that the Russians are manufacturing drones in China without government approval.

The information shows that China has chosen a side in the war, not only politically, but also in terms of weapons technology. This raises the question of whether North Korean soldiers in Russia are also operating with Beijing’s blessing. If so, the West faces a serious threat.

https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-has-secret-war-drones-project-china-intel-sources-say-2024-09-25/

https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/afsloering-med-haard-anklage-mod-kina-sender-droner-med-vaaben-til