Seized Chinese Missiles Raise Concerns On China

Some of the weapons that officials said were seized off the coast of Yemen in January, from a dhow seen leaving an Iranian port. Yemeni Defense Ministry, via Reuters

Chinese Missiles Bound For Terrorists Raise Concerns On China -- Gordon G. Chang, World Affairs

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that in January US and Yemeni forces seized ten sophisticated heat-seeking Chinese-made antiaircraft missiles on an Iranian dhow bound for a Shiite terror group, an Iranian proxy, in northwestern Yemen. These “extremely worrisome” shoulder-fired weapons are highly sought after by terror groups and represent a major threat to military and civilian aircraft alike.

These weapons, Chinese QW-series man-portable air-defense systems, or manpads, had markings indicating they were manufactured by the China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation, a Chinese state enterprise. American and Yemeni officials also reported finding other weapons hidden on the vessel, including 95 RPG-7 launchers, 17,000 blocks of Iranian C-4 plastic explosives, Russian-made night-vision goggles, and 379,000 cartridges for PK machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles. The Times’s headline read, “Seized Chinese Weapons Raise Concerns on Iran.” It should have read, “Seized Chinese Missiles Raise Concerns on China.”

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My Comment: The Chinese government tightly controls it's arms industry and on who they can export to. The discovery of these anti-aircraft missiles is disturbing because it tells me that Beijing has permitted not only the sale of such weapons to Iran, but they have also permitted the transfer of such weapons to Iran's allies. Will Hezbollah and/or Hamas be the next recipients of such weapons .... I can visualize certain nightmare scenarios unfolding.