Over the past half year the West has increasingly taken note of the significantly heightened pace of both Chinese and Russian military spending and surprising leaps forward in terms defense tech advances.

Even when Chinese or Russian systems fail, as with recent news of a nuclear-powered cruise missile touted by Putin as having "unlimited range" but now apparently lost at the bottom of the sea, Western press takes notice, and a number of Pentagon officials have also warned especially of rapidly advancing Chinese systems.

Increasingly, the two powers are cooperating more directly as with Russia's upcoming military games, said to be the largest such exercise since the Soviet Union, where China is set to participate by sending a mass contingency of elite troops.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will participate by sending about 3,200 elite forces troops, along with 30 fix-wing aircraft and helicopters to the Russian-hosted exercises.