China’s Weapons Exports Go Global

An insider in the Chinese military exports industry informed the Global Times reporter that China’s arms exports in the past consisted mostly of light weapons and army weapons. As technology has improved, the proportion of exports of such weapons has dropped below 50 percent. At the same time, aviation and aerospace products, such as fighter planes and long-range tactical missiles, have increased dramatically. The product mix has evolved from a unitary product to a more complete set of products. In the past, [China] exported only bullets or artillery. Now it can export an entire set of equipment such as equipment for a camp including a variety of tanks, radar, communications equipment, and so on. Chinese military enterprises did a lot of research on NATO weapons systems and can integrate Chinese products into these weapons systems. This is particularly attractive for some countries, so that they do not need to worry about the changing relationships between states or being controlled by others.