A report published by the New York Times revealed that Chinese military analysts are closely following the details of Russia's war on Ukraine to draw lessons from them in any potential war over Taiwan.

Chinese experts analyzed how Russia uses hypersonic missiles to destroy ammunition caches, fuel tanks and other strategic targets.

They also examined how Ukrainian forces used the Starlink satellite link system to coordinate attacks and overcome obstacles caused by Russian forces' destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure.


"Starlink"

The Starlink system, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, ensures that Internet service is provided via a network of low-orbit satellites. Following Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Musk provided free Starlink internet access to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mikhaylo Fedorov said Starlink played a vital role in re-establishing essential services in the wake of Russian missile attacks.

Nuclear deterrence

According to the New York Times report, the Chinese have seen that Russian President Vladimir Putin has succeeded in preventing Western powers from directly intervening in Ukraine by exploiting nuclear deterrence, so experts recommended that Beijing should develop its nuclear arsenal program.

Chinese General Meng Xianqing, a professor at Beijing's National Defense University, wrote in a Chinese newspaper that "Russia's nuclear deterrence strategy has played a prominent role in ensuring that the US-led NATO does not dare to participate directly in the Ukraine war," the report said.


The Chinese spoke of the shortcomings in the work of the Russian military as exposed by the war, such as a lack of logistics and supplies, and said that studying those shortcomings should be the focus of Beijing's attention.

Wake-up call

Joel Wothno, a researcher at the National Defense University in Washington, said the Ukraine war was a "wake-up call" for the Chinese, as things may seem easy and organized in field training and on paper, but when you meet the enemy in a real war, things may become chaotic and out of control.

The newspaper quoted Chinese experts as saying that the difficulties experienced by Russia in mobilizing its ground forces require Beijing to maintain its large number and equipment ground forces, as well as work in parallel to expand and strengthen the naval and air forces.


They urged that the Chinese military should be trained in the use of drones, maintain communications in difficult conditions, and use satellite technology, so as to avoid the weakness or absence of reliable intelligence on the movements of adversary forces.

Beijing has also been keen to follow up on the intelligence and military support provided by NATO countries to Ukraine, and quoted US defense priorities expert Lyle Goldstein as saying that China is likely monitoring thousands of missiles of various types that reach Ukraine, and assessing what may happen with Taiwan.