Russia and China have signed a major series of military deals in a bid to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan, according to extraordinary new leaked documents.
The revelations emerged from 800 pages of materials obtained by Black Moon, a hacking collective, and have exposed major contractual arrangements between the two nations.
British defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) has verified certain details - and said others appeared to be genuine.
In the files, Russia is shown to have agreed to provide all the equipment for a batallion of elite Chinese paratroopers, as well as additional resources for special forces infiltration operations.
Russia and China are said to have signed a major series of military deals in a bid to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan
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Beijing has also bought almost 40 lightweight amphibious assault vehicles equipped with 100mm primary weapons and 30mm automatic cannons, according to the Black Moon disclosures.
The shopping list extends to 11 lightweight amphibious self-propelled anti-tank systems, featuring 125mm cannons and 11 Rakushka armoured personnel carriers designed for airborne deployment.
China is also buying a series of command and observation vehicles, and Dalnolyot parachute technology engineered for delivering heavy payloads on targets down below.
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China made a show of inviting Vladimir Putin and other anti-Western leaders to its mass military parade earlier this month
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Rusi defence analysts Oleksandr Danylyuk and Jack Watling have labelled the deal "payback" for underhand Chinese support for the invasion of Ukraine.
Officially, China is neutral - but has defended Russian arguments justifying the war, and made a show of inviting Vladimir Putin and other anti-Western leaders to its mass military parade earlier this month.
Beijing also still allows its firms to supply components to Russia’s arms industry, but the parade was also seen as a way to show off Chinese "home-grown" technology.
And it fears it still lags behind in its ability to move troops and heavy armour to Taiwan and steamroll the Taiwanese forces quickly enough to deter an American-led fightback.
The parade was also seen as a way to show off Chinese 'home-grown' technology
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Beijing already has a fleet of airborne armoured vehicles - and will also need to buy more Russian aircraft to transport the sheer amount of equipment it's said to be buying.
Chinese military personnel will receive instruction at multiple Russian facilities, with armoured vehicle operators heading to the Kurganmashzavod production plant in Kurgan, close to Kazakhstan's frontier.
Personnel operating command platforms, observation systems and anti-tank weaponry will undergo training in Penza, located southeast of the capital.
Mr Danylyuk and Mr Watling said: "Moscow increasingly sees the invasion of Taiwan - and subsequent division of the global economic order into opposing spheres - as a means of building leverage over Beijing by making Russia a supplier of critical raw materials and military industrial capacity."
The pair added that "the greatest value of the deal to the PLA, however, is most likely in the training and the procedures for command and control of airborne forces, as Russia's airborne forces have combat experience, while the PLA does not."
Moscow's forces gained hard-won lessons during their assault on Hostomel airport near Kyiv, where Ukrainian armoured units successfully repelled Russian airborne troops in the opening salvos of the conflict.