White House should say if Russia shares US weapons information with China: Congress
- Leaders of House select committee on China ask National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to assess extent to which Moscow has provided Beijing with ‘lessons learned’
Leaders of a congressional committee on China are calling on the White House to clarify whether Moscow is sharing information with Beijing on how to neutralise US weapons used in the Ukraine war.
In a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Representatives John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who is the chairman of the House select committee on China, and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the panel’s senior Democrat, contend that the Russian military has shown significant effectiveness in undermining several US weapons systems.
Acknowledging that some of the systems are outdated, the legislators contended that even the most advanced weapons sent to help Ukraine defend itself have failed in the field.
They now seek to learn whether this success could be due to information and technology shared by China as part of its “no-limits partnership” with Moscow.
“The PRC has become a ‘decisive enabler’ of the Russian war in Ukraine,” the legislators wrote.
“As one administration official disclosed, the PRC is ‘90 per cent’ of the reason Russia has been able to sustain its war effort and economy, particularly in the face of Western sanctions.”
The representatives accuse Beijing of supplying “significant amounts of microelectronics, dual-use equipment, imagery and other tools to support [Russia’s] war machine”, as well as helping with space technologies and satellites.