The former Soviet republic once churned out arms and equipment for Russia. Now Beijing has a foothold that raises alarms in the West.
Workers in the engine assembly shop at the Motor Sich factory in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. By Anton Troianovski Anton Troianovski Moscow bureau chief covering Russia Email Bio Follow May 20 at 5:32 PM ZAPORIZHIA, Ukraine — The president of a top Ukrainian aerospace company says its new Chinese investors often ask the staff for “little conversations.”
Motor Sich, dubbed the “Czar of Engines” in the Chinese media, has what Beijing wants: It can supply warplane engines and the know-how to one day possibly make a Chinese-built version.The company lost its biggest market — supplying engines for military helicopters and other aircraft in Russia — after war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Now it sells mainly to China.A view of the engine assembly shop at the Motor Sich factory in Zaporizhia.
Ukraine’s factories once churned out tanks, battleships and intercontinental ballistic missiles for the Red Army. They became key to the Russian defense industry’s supply chain. China is on pace to surpass Russia by next year as Ukraine’s biggest single-country trading partner. In 2018, Ukraine traded $9.8 billion in goods with China — a 51 percent increase over two years and more than double the $4 billion in trade with the United States.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry declined to comment for this article. Ukraine-China relations are a delicate issue, officials in Kiev said, given Ukraine’s desire for close ties with the United States on the one hand and China’s expanding partnership with Russia on the other. But Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who took office Monday, met with the Chinese ambassador in Kiev early this month and offered a vote of confidence.Workers in the Motor Sich engine assembly shop.
A Chinese firm, Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co., tried to buy a controlling stake in Motor Sich in 2017. Ukrainian authorities froze the deal on national security grounds. But Boguslayev said that $100 million of Beijing Skyrizon’s promised $250 million did come through and that the Chinese company now owns a stake of at least 25 percent in Motor Sich.
Asked for comment about Motor Sich, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States doesn’t “oppose China’s economic and technological development through legitimate means. However, we are concerned by actions China’s government has taken that are out of step with international norms.
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