I get the impression from articles like these that if there ever will be a third world war, with China as the antagonist, Russia will strike first.  They are losing much more than anybody else is: the few market advantages they had after the collapse of the USSR, is being eaten up by China.  

Well if Russia is seriously considering working with China on a new design to replace Russian aircraft, Russia can turn this into an opportunity to screw China for its piracy ways.  Help design such aircraft with many minor and non-noticeable flaws which together lead to failure. So when China eventually says to Russia "thanks for the help, we'll take it from here without you", Russia can laugh it off as chinese pirated copies fall from the sky. Unrealistic scenario granted, but who knows. I've heard from people in the industry 30yrs ago this is what happened to the Soviets in their quest to build a SST(Tu-144) using stolen designs(with flaws) from the west.  The Paris crash is still debated as to the cause so maybe its possible. Export the gremlins comrades.