China’s new defense minister was sanctioned by US for buying weapons from Russian military
Jerry Dunleavy
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China’s new defense minister has previously been sanctioned by the United States for his concerning ties to the Russian military as criticism of Beijing’s links to Putin’s war machine grows.
Li Shangfu, a longtime leader in the Chinese Central Military Commission, was endorsed as Beijing’s new minister of defense at the Chinese Communist Party’s National People’s Congress on Sunday. Li, a close ally of Xi Jinping, was targeted in 2018 for his involvement in Russia’s transfer to China of Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 surface-to-air missile system equipment.
CHINA PROPPED UP RUSSIAN MILITARY DURING WAR IN UKRAINE
The promotion of the sanctioned Chinese official comes as the Biden administration has warned that the Chinese government is considering providing the Russian military with lethal aid for its invasion of Ukraine. Congressional Republicans have demanded the White House take more drastic steps to challenge Beijing’s rhetorical, economic, and nonlethal military support to Russia. The intelligence community has been warning about the deepening “DragonBear” alliance between China and Russia.
Xi argued over the weekend that efforts must be undertaken by Li and the People’s Liberation Army to “advance the modernization of national defense and armed forces on all fronts, and build the people’s armed forces into a ‘Great Wall of steel’ that is capable of effectively safeguarding national sovereignty,” according to China’s Defense Ministry.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September 2018 enforcing the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, and the State Department and Treasury Department enforced the order through sanctions against Li. The State Department said Li was involved in “significant transactions” with Russian officials operating in the Kremlin’s defense and intelligence sectors. At the time, Li was the leader of the Chinese military’s Equipment Development Department, and both Li and the Chinese entity were sanctioned for their role in buying Russian fighter jets and surface-to-air missile equipment.
Before that, Li was the deputy commander of the PLA’s Strategic Support Force.
Li also played a role in the massive Chinese state-owned defense company Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
The future Chinese defense minister had been a board member of AVIC Avionics Equipment, according to Bloomberg. The State Department considers AVIC Avionics an AVIC subsidiary. Deutsche Bank research in November 2015 said that Li was a board director at AVIC Avionics, a chairman at the AVIC Technology Foundation Establishment, and a deputy chief economist and senior specialist at AVIC.
AVIC Avionics was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in June 2021 and placed on the “Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that AVIC subsidiary AVIC International Holding Corporation had shipped “$1.2 million worth of parts for Su-35 jet fighters” to sanctioned Russian defense conglomerate Rostec subsidiary Kret on Oct. 24, 2022. Although a number of Chinese companies have been sanctioned over Russia’s war in Ukraine, AVIC is not one of them.
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The BHR Partners investment firm, which counted Hunter Biden as a board member and 10% stakeholder, worked with AVIC Automotive, a subsidiary of AVIC, to purchase Michigan-based Henniges Automotive in September 2015.
When Hunter Biden’s BHR teamed up with China’s AVIC in September 2015, it was already publicly known that AVIC was also teaming up with a number of Russian military companies, including Rostec, and that these Russian companies were being sanctioned related to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in early 2014. Multiple AVIC subsidiaries had also been sanctioned by the United States prior to Hunter Biden teaming up with it.