China's Arms Industry Builds to Rival West's

 

 

“In 2016, Beijing launched a new aerospace conglomerate called Aero Engine Corp. of China. It had a challenging mandate: develop top-line aircraft engines, a technology China had long struggled to master.

 

Less than a decade later, Beijing's newest stealth fighters are entering service with what officials call "Chinese hearts," or indigenously made engines.

 

The progress marked a milestone in China's quest to forge an arms industry worthy of a rising global power. For years, China's rise obscured a sobering reality: It couldn't make all its own weapons.

 

Beijing is now not only producing its own armaments, it is selling more abroad. In some technologies, China appears to be matching major arms producers such as Russia and the U.S., or even pulling ahead.

 

The ability to churn out advanced armaments is a key element in Chinese leader Xi Jinping's vision of making his country less reliant on the outside world for everything from food and energy to semiconductors.

 

Two decades ago, China imported more arms than any other country, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or Sipri, an independent think tank.

 

China used to rely on the likes of Russia and France for warplanes, aviation engines and air-defense systems, and struck deals to buy military hardware from the U.S. in the 1980s, including radar systems and artillery technology.

 

But China's share of global arms imports has fallen and it has dropped out of the world's top 10 buyers in recent years, according to Sipri data.

 

Analysts say China can now produce most of the military technologies it needs.

 

This strategic success puts China in a stronger position to wage war in the event of a superpower conflict. It reflects Beijing's efforts to boost scientific research, restructure its state-run arms industry and tap private businesses for defense needs.

 

China has closed some technological gaps through espionage and illegally reverse-engineering imported gear, Western officials and analysts say. U.S. officials have disclosed what they describe as Chinese cyberattacks aimed at stealing secrets in aerospace, maritime and other technologies.

 

"China used every trick in the book," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher in Sipri's arms-transfers program.

 

"China has always adhered to the principles of independence, self-reliance and indigenous innovation in weapons equipment development, relying on its own strength for research, development and production," the Chinese Defense Ministry said in response to queries. Beijing's arms programs, it said, are entirely meant for "safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests."

 

In the 1990s, China bought Russian Sukhoi-27 fighters and reverse-engineered them to make its own version: the J-11s. Rostec, a Russian state-owned defense conglomerate, later accused China of illegally copying Russian military hardware, including Sukhoi planes.

 

In 2016, a Chinese aviation executive pleaded guilty in the U.S. to conspiring to hack and steal data from American defense contractors, including information on the C-17 transporter as well as the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

 

Beijing also reorganized its defense industry, which had been dominated by state giants that had struggled with inefficiency and corruption.

 

"Xi's thinking is that China remains the underdog in the military-innovation-industrial nexus compared with the U.S.," said Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at UC San Diego who has written books on China's military. But Xi's goal is for China "to comprehensively challenge the U.S. for global military leadership" eventually, Cheung said.” [1]

 

1. World News: China's Arms Industry Builds to Rival West's. Chun Han Wong.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Dec 2025: A7.