In the late 60's, 70's and 80's, China and the US were defacto allies, and the Russians were no friends to anybody, idiot. In case you don't know (and you don't), the PLA and the Red Army fought bn/brgd level skirmishes. By the mid 70's up until early 90's, the Red Army had 25 Div backed by thousands of tanks and planes (not to mention enough nukes to blanket China), ready to take Northern China. The USSR was more than ready to do a pre-emptive nuke strike against China, only to be strongly discouraged by Nixon. And if NATO wasn't there to handle 60% of the Red Army, the Russians would have swarmed China.

Oh, yeah, big long time friends the Russians were and big time enemies the US/NATO was.

Get your terminology right! It's the Secretary of Defense, not the Defence Minister.

You can forget about Putin! He won't sell strategic assets to China period. He already had abandoned China by suggesting Russian membership in NATO and he has halted tech transfer to the PRC. He's a smart KGB man alright. There's no way in hell is he going to arm anybody who might be able to take Siberia, friend or no friend.

Your interruptation of the PHALCON deal is stupid and idiotic. The Israelis will sell ONE plane to China - whoppee doo. One plane does not a C3I make. The Israelis won't sell anymore due to US pressure and considering that no maintenance contracts were signed, that PHALCON would be sitting on the runway collecting rust in a few years time. That's the result of the US pressure. The Chinese justed wasted a whole bunch of money.