US Ammunition Depletion: Coordinated Silence Between Beijing and Moscow

Chinese and Russian media have not covered data on the depletion of Tomahawk stockpiles, despite typically analyzing US military capabilities in detail.

Chinese media outlets (Global Times, Xinhua, CCTV) have not reported on the depletion of Tomahawk stocks, despite their usual detailed analysis of U.S. military capabilities. Beijing likely avoids highlighting U.S. military vulnerability to avoid signaling to the Communist Party's hawks that the time would be ripe for action on Taiwan.

Russian media outlets (TASS, RIA Novosti) have also ignored this information – an unusual convergence of silence between Beijing and Moscow. This silence is all the more striking given China's recent launch of DeepSeek V4 on Huawei chips on April 24 – a demonstration of technological sovereignty that contrasts with the discretion on U.S. military weaknesses.

The coordinated silence serves a strategic logic: neither Beijing nor Moscow has an interest in Washington accelerating the replenishment of its stocks. Publicity around the depletion could trigger an acceleration of production at Raytheon and an increase in defense spending – exactly what the two strategic rivals want to avoid.