In an utterly stunning development in eastern Europe, China has sent troops from its People's Liberation Army (PLA) to Belarus, to participate side-by-side with Belarus troops in an "exercise." - as NATO places 115,000 troops on Belarus' Border.
Word of this began to leak out around 5:00 AM eastern US time today (Saturday July 6) when avid air enthusiasts noticed an unidentified plane in Belarus air space. It had begun squawking a Transponder beacon, but was not identifying itself.
The plane landed at a military base in Belarus, and Covert Intel was quickly deployed to take a look. That turned out to be unnecessary because both Belarus and Russia made public the details:
The aircraft was a troop transport/cargo plane from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA):
Shortly after it landed, a small contingent of Chinese Army troops de-planed and were greeted with a hearty welcome by Belarus military officers.
It turns out this is a not-subtle-at-all message to NATO: China backs Belarus and Russia.
It also turns out that this proves interoperability between those forces; something that was not heretofore confirmed by the West.
NATO has positioned about 115,000 troops on the border of Belarus, hoping to force Russia to lock-in-place about 300,000 troops it has on the border of Ukraine.
Now that China has made its entry into the situation, Russia is now free to utilize those 300,000 troops along Ukraine's border without having to worry that NATO will enter Belarus.
This is a very big change in the balance of power in eastern Europe. It seems designed to give Pause to NATO and to the West.
Observers say it will either achieve that goal, or perhaps trigger a much worse set of actions by the West.
This is now a tinderbox ready to be ignited by the smallest "spark."
