China wants more advanced military technology from Russia, but the Russians refuse to let certain missile secrets out of the country. So the Chinese are cutting back. While the Chinese accounted for over 70 percent of Russian arms sales a decade ago, it's now only 40 percent, and headed for 20 percent over the next few years. An era in weapons procurement is ending.
It's not the first time Russia has armed the Chinese with modern weapons. It happened in the 1930s, the 50s and 60s. Relations between the two nations went south in the 70s and 80s, but picked up once the Soviet Union collapsed. That resulted in an enormous transfer of military technology to China.
Given that Russia is more hostile to us lately, I don't think that they are doing this to help us. It may be that the Russians have finally figured out that a stronger China is a greater threat to Russia's Far East. The Russians may finally feel they are on a path to being strong enough to defeat the Chinese, and so appeasing China with weapons is now a bad idea.
