Saturday, September 17, 2016

Why Is China Having Problems Selling Its Arms To Other Countries?


Richard A. Bitzinger, National Interest: China's Military Is Getting Strong (So Why Aren't Chinese Weapons Selling?

One of the frequent arguments made about China’s 20-year-long military buildup is that its locally produced weapons are better than they used to be. To a certain extent this is true, if hardly surprising. Relatively modern systems, such as the J-10 fighter jet, the Yuan-class submarine, and the Type-99 main battle tank, are certainly superior to the weapons systems they replaced, that is, the J-7, the Ming-class sub, and the Type-59 tank – all basically copies of Soviet weapons dating back to the 1950s. They could not help but be better.

At the same time, it is true that some current Chinese arms are highly competitive with their Western or Russian counterparts. These include unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, and lightweight trainer jets. But all this raises an important point: if Chinese weapons are supposed to be so great, how come hardly any other country wants to buy them?

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WNU Editor: I guess most countries do not feel confident that Chinese weapons can stand-up to U.S./Russian/European/etc. products. And while Chinese arms may be cheaper to purchase .... what good is such a "cheap product" when the other side can easily destroy it in a conflict.

3 comments:

RussInSoCal said...

Because Chinese export arms are security liabilities from their conception. To any fool nation that would (and do) actually buy them.

/And for the very simple reason that they just suck ass.

fazman said...

Also the enormous pressure placed on countries by the u.s to purchase from them.

Anonymous said...

Quality control is catch as catch can with Sino durable goods.