Chinese state-owned firm supplied Russia with materials for hundreds of kamikaze drones

A Chinese state-owned company shipped tens of tons of a critical aerospace material to a sanctioned Russian defense facility, providing the raw ingredients for what could be hundreds of kamikaze drones used against Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. The findings, published by Politico in September 2026, represent some of the most direct evidence yet of Chinese state enterprise involvement in Russia’s drone production pipeline. The company at the center of the investigation is Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, a state-owned manufacturer based in China’s northeastern Jilin province. According to the investigation, Jilin shipped approximately 46 metric tons of polyacrylonitrile, known in the industry as PAN-precursor, to a Russian facility earlier in 2026. The shipments were routed under civilian customs codes, obscuring their actual destination and purpose. What PAN-precursor actually does PAN-precursor is a polymer material that, once processed at high temperatures, becomes the lightweight, high-strength carbon fiber used in aerospace and military applications. Carbon fiber is a core structural component in the Geran drone, Russia’s domestic version of Iran’s Shahed kamikaze drone. T...