Russian military expert and retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok commented on the latest weapons systems of the People’s Liberation Army of China, showcased during the recent parade. He stressed that displaying advanced hardware is one thing, but the true test lies in how it performs in actual combat.

According to Khodarenok, the decisive exam for any weapon is the battlefield. Questions inevitably arise about mass production and whether these systems are genuinely deployed in the armed forces. For this reason, he views parade demonstrations only as a first step and an initial impression. He recalled that even in Russia, some prototypes once rolled through Red Square in single copies, never to enter full-scale production.

At the same time, he did not rule out that China could eventually have the chance to test its latest equipment in real warfare. He pointed to the example of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who had openly invited Western countries and NATO to trial new weapons and combat systems in the conflict in Ukraine.

In that context, Khodarenok suggested that Russia might respond by offering China the opportunity to test its own weapons and crews on Ukrainian battlefields. He underlined that such a step would be purely retaliatory. While stressing that nothing could be excluded, he argued that if Moscow were to extend such an offer, China should take it with the utmost seriousness.