Leaked Contracts Reveal Russia Supplies, Preps Chinese Military for Potential Taiwan Invasion
Russia is arming and training China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for potential operations against Taiwan, according to leaked contracts analyzed by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
The 2023 papers, obtained by the hacktivist group Black Moon, detail a full battalion package, including 37 BMD-4M assault vehicles, 11 Sprut-SDM1 anti-tank guns, 11 BTR-MDM troop carriers, several Rubin and KSHM-E command and observation vehicles, Orlan-10 unmanned aerial systems, and artillery command trucks.
Moscow also agreed to provide parachutes that can drop heavy loads from high altitude, allowing troops and equipment to be deployed deep behind enemy lines.
The London-based defense think tank added that a new repair hub will also be built in China, giving Beijing the blueprints to replicate and maintain related systems.
Airborne Strategy Hinted
Chinese President Xi Jinping has tasked the PLA with preparing to seize Taiwan by 2027, but amphibious operations face major obstacles. The island has few suitable beaches, and its ports and runways could be quickly destroyed or blocked, making large-scale landings risky.
RUSI indicated that these challenges have pushed Beijing to explore airborne operations as an alternative, with equipment and training for such deployments included in the contracts, highlighting China’s focus on diversifying options for potential Taiwan operations.
In support, Moscow is sharing amphibious tactics with China — lessons its forces have never tested in combat — helping the PLA prepare for scenarios beyond conventional amphibious assaults.
These lessons may draw on Russia’s experience in Ukraine, including the limits of complex operations such as lightly armed paratroopers operating without heavy support.
Preparations are predicted to begin in Russia and conclude with live exercises at PLA ranges inside China.
“The capacity to airdrop armour vehicles, therefore, on golf courses, or other areas of open and firm ground near Taiwan’s ports and airfields, would allow air assault troops to significantly increase their combat power and threaten seizure of these facilities to clear a path for the landing of follow-on forces,” the think-tank said.
Strategic Leverage
The leaks show Moscow and Beijing moving beyond cautious cooperation into a closer defense partnership, according to RUSI.
“Moscow increasingly sees the invasion of Taiwan – and subsequent division of the global economic order into opposing spheres – as a means of building leverage over Beijing by making Russia a supplier of critical raw materials and military industrial capacity,” the organization wrote.
“For China, funding to Russian military industrial enterprises contributes to the continuation of fighting in Ukraine, which the [People’s Republic of China] supports to fix NATO capacity in the European theatre.”
