A cache of leaked documents from clandestine Russia-China military forums lays out a joint plan to neutralize Starlink and a weapons program reaching into some of the most sensitive strategic systems either country possesses, according to a joint investigation published July 9 by The Insider, Der Spiegel and Le Monde.
The material consists of four presentations delivered in November 2023 at a secret bilateral gathering in Guangzhou, plus a ten-page working protocol signed in Moscow on June 5, 2023. The outlets report that the forums have convened annually since 2020 without ever being publicized, and that flight records match the travel of participants named in the documents.
The Starlink plan
One Guangzhou presentation, delivered by two researchers from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China's main state space contractor, is devoted entirely to countering Starlink. The slides trace the network's evolution from commercial broadband into military infrastructure in Ukraine, where its distributed design means no single node can be jammed or destroyed to meaningful effect.
The researchers propose a three-level response, per the reporting. First, joint legal and diplomatic pressure to cap the constellation's growth. Second, coordinated filings for frequency bands and orbital slots to box SpaceX out of the spectrum and physical space it needs, paired with a merged Russian-Chinese jamming architecture. Third, physical destruction, starting with cyber operations pushed through end-user terminals and ending with low-cost weapons meant to kill satellites faster than SpaceX can replace them.
The slides do not specify the weapon. The investigation notes that Chinese media reported in February that researchers in Xi'an had built a ground-based microwave weapon capable of targeting low-orbit satellites, and that NATO intelligence is tracking a Russian concept involving clouds of pellets released into the constellation's orbital path.
The hypersonic defense protocol
The Moscow protocol may be the more consequential document. Signed by officials from Rosoboronexport, Almaz-Antey and NPO Almaz on the Russian side, and a delegation led by a colonel from the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department on the Chinese side, it commits both countries to jointly develop an integrated air- and missile-defense system designed to intercept American hypersonic weapons in their terminal phase.
Performance targets fixed in the protocol include engaging targets maneuvering at up to 25 g and intercepting hypersonic missiles at altitudes up to 40 kilometers. According to the investigation, that would surpass anything Russia currently fields, including the S-500. Pavel Luzin of the Saratoga Foundation called this class of technology "the holy of holies," a capability neither Russia nor the Soviet Union was ever willing to share.
The bargain underneath
Other presentations spell out the trade at the heart of the partnership. Russia offers battlefield experience from four years of war in Ukraine. China offers AI, electronics, chips and manufacturing scale.
The effects are already visible, according to the reporting. Ukrainian military-intelligence documents from 2025 describe Russia's V2U autonomous drone as running on Chinese AI modules, lidar sensors, batteries and solid-state drives. Der Spiegel reports at least 200 Russian drone operators trained at six sites in China, and Chinese experts advising Russia on mass production of kamikaze drones. In June, EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc had verified reports that China trained hundreds of Russian soldiers
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