Last year, Ukraine and the US Commerce Department imposed sanctions on Beijing Xinwei and Beijing Skyrizon, stymieing the takeover bid….reports Asian Lite News
Beijing firm, Xinwei Technology Group has gone bankrupt that was eyeing to seize control of Ukrainian engine manufacturer Motor Sich, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of missiles, helicopter and jet engines.
A Beijing court assigned a law firm to manage the bankruptcy of Beijing Xinwei Technology Group. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court appointed Haiwen Law Firm on Tuesday as the bankruptcy liquidation administrator for Beijing Xinwei, court documents showed. Creditors can file debt claims by May 5, reported Caixin Global.
Xinwei said in a statement that it “will continue pushing forward the purchase of Motor Sich in a bid to change the course of the bankruptcy,” although the deal has hit a deadlock due to national security concerns in Ukraine.
Beijing Xinwei has sought to take over Motor Sich for the past few years through its subsidiary Beijing Skyrizon Aviation. But Ukraine regulators have held up the deal on national security grounds, reported Caixin Global.
Last year, Ukraine and the US Commerce Department imposed sanctions on Beijing Xinwei and Beijing Skyrizon, stymieing the takeover bid.
Beijing Xinwei was delisted from the Shanghai stock exchange in June 2021 after reporting losses of 26.5 billion yuan in the previous four years, reported Caixin Global.
Defence-industrial complex
Ever since Ukraine rejected the Chinese bid to buy a major stake in Motor Sich and imposed sanctions on Chinese individuals and entities involved in the deal, Beijing has reportedly employed covert tactics to acquire Ukrainian military technology.
Some experts believe in the fact that China is carrying out tech theft in cahoots with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which may be interested in doing away with importing the tank engines from Ukraine.
In one of his blogs for the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), political analyst Valerio Fabbri writes how Chinese intelligence is shrouded in mystery. Even security experts are often in the dark about its functioning.
Unlike the traditional way of employing professional spies, Beijing uses the “Thousand Grains of Sand” technique to utilize Chinese students, academicians studying and working abroad, tourists and even companies for intelligence collection.
According to Fabbri, Chinese intelligence relies on a huge global social system, a non-professional and informal intelligence network that provides information in areas of Beijing’s priorities in military, socio-political and economic sectors.
Last year, the Ukrainian intelligence service (SBU) detained a foreign citizen in the Eastern city of Kharkiv, who was operating under the cover of a public organisation.
That man was allegedly carrying out espionage activities to obtain classified information in the field of material science for military purposes.
“Although the SBU never disclosed the nationality of the foreign citizen, photos taken during the search and later released by the SBU show ID cards with the words ‘Sino-Ukrainian Centre in the Russian language. All bring to believe that the arrested person is a Chinese citizen, who reportedly worked under the cover of the public organisation ‘China-Ukraine Centre’ for Economic and Cultural Cooperation, operating in the city since 2007,” Fabbri said.
Kharkiv has significant relevance for China, as it is home to Ukrainian enterprises dealing with defence technology including tank engines and other hardware. Notably, China supplies Ukrainian T-80UD engines to Pakistan, which are then used in Pakistani manufactured Al-Khalid-series tanks.
Not only that, Sino-Pakistani VT-1A tanks use 6TD-2 engines also produced by the Kharkiv-based enterprise.
Against this backdrop, Fabbri argued that Ukraine should perhaps take note of Chinese mechanisations and strengthen accordingly its counter-intelligence apparatus.
More so in light of the fact that the US main security challenge is China indeed, as the latest developments in the standoff between Kiev and Moscow indicate, he added. (ANI)