by Guido Santevecchi
The United States has accused and sanctioned Spacety China, a company that develops space technology, of sending Wagner Brigade fighters satellite images used to select targets in the conflict
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN BEIJING – A (private) Chinese company is behind the Russian Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine.
The United States has accused and sanctioned Spacety China, a company that develops space technology and allegedly sent satellite images of Ukrainian territory that were used to select targets in the war.
Spacety China (full name Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute) ended up blacklisted by the US Treasury Department: the sanctions prohibit any commercial or technological cooperation with the company, which has its headquarters in Beijing and a branch in Luxembourg (also with subject to an embargo). Washington).
According to the American investigation, the Chinese company provided satellite photos of Ukrainian territory to Terra Tech, a Russian company, which in turn passed them on to Wagner’s command.
Technically, the images captured by Chinese satellites are defined as non-lethal devices because they are not weapons or ammunition. But the US Treasury Department report recalls that the photos enabled Wagner to plan attacks and battles in Ukraine (even the Kiev army, thanks to Western support, has images of the Russian deployment that enable precision strikes).
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Spacety China is formally a private company, although every industrial company in the People’s Republic is still at least state-controlled.
The company, which has laboratories in Changsha, Henan province, describes itself on its website as a pioneer in the commercial availability of images obtained with SAR technology, which stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, and, simply put, a system that enables images of altitude Definition earth. The Chinese company prides itself on its ability to mass-produce commercial satellites in micro, nano and small versions.
On February 4, 2022, three weeks before the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin pledged full cooperation in Beijing.
Since then, Xi has never condemned the invasion, instead denouncing the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West. But China has continued to define itself as neutral in the conflict and, according to American intelligence services, has not sent war supplies to its Russian friends.
Xi Jinping walks a fine line: he does not deny his political friendship with Putin, but wants to avoid secondary sanctions from the American side against Chinese state-owned industry.
Beijing’s concrete support was limited (and by no means small) to a massive increase in purchases of Russian gas and oil.
Now, however, Washington is warning the Chinese on the front lines of non-lethal supplies useful in continuing the war. Sources in the Biden administration said they had a very intense exchange of views with the Chinese about these maneuvers, which also involve Chinese companies directly controlled by the party state.
Jan 28, 2023 (change Jan 28, 2023 | 1:58 p.m.)
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