Russia, China Holding Joint Military Exercise; Western And Chinese Media Characterize It Differently – The Lid

This is a rather interesting development.  Russia and China have sent 10,000 troops to the Ningxia region of north central China for a joint exercise with ground and air forces.  Russia has deployed motorized infantry, multirole jet strike-fighters (Su-30SM), and air defense systems.  China’s got tanks (which seems to mean armored assault vehicles of various types, based on video footage), self-propelled howitzers, J-20 stealth fighters (making their first appearance in a joint exercise with a foreign force), and advanced early warning aircraft (the KJ-500).

Western media are reporting this as an exercise responding to concerns about stability in Afghanistan, designed to improve Chinese-Russian cooperation against problems like terrorism. But that’s not what China’s media is telling the Chinese people.