For almost two decades, China accounted for between one-fourth and one-half of Russia’s foreign military sales, with Beijing buying more military products from Russia than from all other countries combined. During the 1990s, the value of these purchases ranged anywhere up to about one billion dollars per year. During the mid-2000s, this figure sometimes rose above two billion dollars per annum. These sales helped make Russia the largest seller of major conventional weapons to Asian countries between 1998 and 2005, ahead of the United States.
Indeed, in several respects, China and Russia have been natural arms sales partners. China could obtain sophisticated conventional weapons from Russia that its emerging military industrial complex was still learning to produce. Meanwhile, Russian companies received considerable revenue at a time when their government had so little money that it could buy few if any weapons systems for Russia’s own armed forces. Without the Chinese purchases, many more Russian defence companies and their sub-contractors might have gone bankrupt.
Today, though, the situation has changed radically. According to the latest data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China imported more major conventional weapons between 2005 and 2009 than any other country. Yet China’s share of global arms imports decreased to an average of 9 percent during this period, a much lower percentage than in previous years. The drop in Chinese purchases of complete Russian weapons systems was particularly acute during the last three years. In 2009, China bought only a few combat helicopters from Russia, as well as some advanced engines that could be used to power military as well as civilian vehicles.
Several developments have contributed to the end of the traditional Chinese-Russian arms relationship. First, the Chinese military industrial sector has become much more sophisticated. Chinese defence firms can now manufacture considerably more advanced weapons systems, reducing the country’s demand for the kind of late Soviet weapons platforms China bought in abundance in previous years. At the same time, the Russian government has declined to sell its top-of-the-line military technology to China, with Russian policymakers worrying that providing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army its cutting-edge defence products could threaten existing military balances in the Asia Pacific region and also antagonize other governments, including Japan and the United States, worried about China’s rising military power.
But perhaps of more immediate concern are Russian fears about China’s ability to use Russian imported weapons to improve the quality of its own military exports. Russian analysts cite past instances when Chinese technicians copied Russian weapons systems and, after making slight adjustments, sold them to third parties. So far, Chinese firms have only managed to displace Russian military sales from a few low-value developing country markets. But already Russian policymakers, aware of Chinese scientific and technological prowess, fear losing possible future defence sales to countries willing to accept the only slightly lower performance capabilities of Chinese weapons systems available for much lower prices.
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Yang tsup
russia can look on other nation to sell it arms.. and must keep refusing to sell their most advance weapons to china.
child
@frank
so, china proud of copying other’s tech..
what a shame..
wasantha
it is not a shame. you wear trouncers invented by great Chinese people.
Peter Pan
Copying is a natural act of conservation.
Why reinvent the wheel when you can copy…less wastage in time,material personnel.
In the car industry, it is fairly rampant.Just look around and you will see that all the latest model cars has certain features that look alike, like the BMW wedge tail,the front and tail lights,body sculpture etc.
In fact, you cannot get away from the feeling that they look alike!!!
Frank
The reason that China is the longest surviving civilization on this earth is because Chinese people’s capabilities and willingness to learn from other people fast.
If that means Chinese has to copy from others, so be it. Sooner or later, they will have to copy from Chinese.
Take a look as China’s history. Chinese are not the strongest people. Not stronger than Huns. However, by learning from Huns, Chinese drove them out of Asia.
Tibet was far stronger and larger than China. Look where they are today.
Same can be said about Manchu and Mongol.
Chinese did not invent trains. Today, China has the longest and the fastest railways on earth.
Chinese did not invent cars. Today, China produces more cars than anybody else.
Just wait and see the great resurrection of a great nation is happening.
YiJiun
Is that the J-20? Or are you refering to latest generation in development?
Actually, Russia’s greatest mistake is to take advantage of this potential greatest ally. Looks like it still hasn’t come round to why the former Soviet Union disintegrated so terribly! Don’t underestimate the role of China which can add great value to the Soviet Union if it were an ally. Just do the Math: to have an ally to strengthen you becoming a foe which you have to waste defence money guarding. It has doubling effect. Worse is that this foe joins the US and the effect multiplies being of close proximity in geographic terms and in the past, you can focus on Europe, now you got pinced both to the East and West!
Looks like Russia is doomed to fail.
UBOAT
The article was fair enough and some info is wrong, China for its airforce does depend on russian engines but china has alternate plans working on different engines avionics and their immense investment in r&d their technology is equally superior to the so called superior technology that russian was unwilling to provide thus the out come is russia losing export markets. It is already projected that by 2015 China would have superior fighter engines/airlines-engines/Warships/military vehicles-tanks planes and other weapons and by 2020 China eliminate Russia as the world’s second largest military good’s export.
So a decade is not a big deal for China all focus is on developmental work and R&D. What will be the outcome when china has its own airlines/its own better tanks/its own equal to S-500 missiles/Its own superior ground radars-AESA radars for fighter jets/better satellites and communication equipment and vice versa not to forget its own military transports and AWACS. I see the demise of Russian arms market in atleast 12 years more as Its not about soviet has stuff of soviet era infact they still are still 86% using their own soviet era technologies thus the article saying russians have great stuff not for sale is very limited in production since russia has not much cash to develop produce and invest in r&d while China has one thing that is Cash $$$ to invest and that is making them stronger day by day. I would assume in 12 Years China would be second in the market eliminating russia thus bringing them to the 3rd position.