China's top general hosts Russia's defence minister and pledges closer military ties

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov met General Zhang Shengmin, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on 3 November, on his latest visit to China. It was the first publicly known meeting between Zhang and a foreign minister since he was promoted to the Communist Party's Politburo the previous week.

Zhang is now one of only two active members of the commission, which runs China's armed forces, alongside President Xi Jinping. Five of the seven members appointed in a 2022 reshuffle have since been removed in Beijing's anti-corruption drive, and Zhang is also the only Politburo member with a military background.

What the two ministries said

The account of the talks comes from statements issued by the Chinese and Russian defence ministries, and the pledges below are their claims rather than independently verified outcomes. According to those statements, Zhang said military relations between the two countries had grown alongside their wider ties, with results in high-level exchanges and in joint exercises and training.

The Chinese ministry said Zhang offered to work with Moscow to strengthen strategic communication, build trust in the military field, improve cooperation mechanisms and look for new areas of cooperation. Chinese state media also cited him as saying the two sides would safeguard their sovereignty, security and development interests and support regional and world stability.

Belousov, according to the same statements, said the strategic partnership between Russia and China had reached an unprecedented level under the guidance of Vladimir Putin and Xi. He described the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region as complex and volatile, said Russia supported China's role in major international and regional affairs, and proposed closer strategic consultations and wider practical cooperation in military education and science and technology. He also congratulated Zhang on his Politburo promotion.

Timing and context

The visit coincided with the 30th anniversary of the strategic partnership the two countries set up in 1996, Anadolu reported. Belousov had already visited Beijing in October 2024, when he reviewed an honour guard with Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, according to Liberty Times. In September, Zhang met the defence ministers of Vietnam and Indonesia at a regional security forum in Beijing, Reuters reported.

Russia has sought closer ties with China since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Beijing says it is neutral in that war and has called for peace talks, but it has never condemned the Russian attack. Liberty Times said it was not clear whether the military talks were linked to a possible meeting of the Chinese, Russian and US leaders around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November, which the Kremlin said in September had been discussed.

Why it matters

For Taiwan and its partners, the meeting shows that China's purge of its top commanders has not interrupted its military diplomacy with Russia, with Zhang now acting as the senior uniformed face of the PLA abroad. Both sides singled out joint exercises and training as an area of achievement and pointed to the Asia-Pacific as a region of concern, but neither statement named specific new drills, agreements or programmes, so what the pledges will mean in practice remains to be seen.