China's terrifying military exposed as Beijing to buy Putin's jets, defying US sanctions

China is demonstrating its closer ties to Russia at a time when its relationship with the US is deteriorating by purchasing ”modern weapons and military equipment manufactured in Russia, including additional batches of Su-35 fighter jets”. In September, the US State Department announced it would be sanctioning the Equipment Development Department of China’s Central Military Commission over its acquisition of Russia’s “Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment”. The Diplomat’s senior editor Franz-Stefan Gady also commented on the potential purchase, explaining on Thursday that the Chinese Su-35 “can reportedly be with air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, unguided rockets, guided bomb units, unguided bombs and anti-ship missiles.”

The aircraft is an upgraded version of the Sukhoi Su-27 and Beijing already bought two dozen for some $2.5billion (£1.9billion).

Official China Central Television column Weihutang issued a report of its own Saturday suggesting that a second batch could help to further modernise the Chinese air force’s ageing fleet.

On Sunday, however, Chinese air defence expert Fu Qianshao told Chinese Communist Party tabloid The Global Times that there would likely be another reason for the purchase.

Fu argued that, rather than simply bringing China’s aerial capabilities up to date, such an acquisition would secure more spare parts and dedicated personnel involved in the Su-35 program.

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He also suggested that the purchase could have political and economic elements,

This explanation was accepted by Michael Peck, writing Monday for The National Interest.

Sukhoi described the Su-35 as “a multi-purpose, super-manoeuvrable fighter of the fourth-plus-plus generation” that received its “baptism of fire” through its participation in Russia’s campaign against rebels and jihadis seeking to overthrow the government in Syria.

The aircraft was said capable of tracking up to 30 air targets at once and engaging eight, among other high-tech feats.

China first signed a deal to buy 24 Su-35s back in 2015 and the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation reported last April that the delivery was complete.

The first-ever use of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act angered both Moscow and Beijing, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang arguing at the time that Washington “seriously violated the basic norms governing international relations and seriously damaged the relations between the two countries and the two militaries.”

The following day, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to do more business in their respective national currencies to minimise their dependence on the US dollar at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.

Beijing has also joined Moscow for a record number of joint military exercises in recent years as Putin signed on to Xi’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative envisioning hundreds of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects across the globe.