Less than a decade later, Beijing’s latest stealth fighter aircraft are entering service, powered by what officials call the “Chinese heart” or indigenously built engines.
This progress marked a milestone in China’s quest to build an arms industry worthy of a rising global power. Over the years, China’s rise Obscured a serious reality: it could not make all its weapons itself.
Beijing is now not only manufacturing its own weapons but also selling them abroad. In some military technologies, China is catching up with, or surpassing, major arms producers such as Russia and the US.
The ability to churn out advanced weapons is a key element in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s vision of building up his country Less dependence on the outside world For everything from food and energy to semiconductors. Xi has argued that a more self-reliant China is necessary to prevent the West from squeezing it into a strategic stranglehold.
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 relied on countries like Russia and France for warplanes, aviation engines and air-defense systems and even struck deals in the 1980s to buy military hardware from the US, including radar systems and artillery technology.
But China’s share in global arms imports has declined significantly and the Asian power has fallen 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, even if it continues to use some foreign hardware for cost or quality reasons.
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.
Western officials and analysts say China has also closed some technology gaps through spying and illegally reverse-engineering imported gear. US officials have revealed what they describe as the aim of the Chinese cyberattack Stealing America’s Secrets in aerospace, marine and other technologies.
“China used every trick in the book,” said Simon Weizmann, a senior researcher at SIPRI’s arms-transfer program.
According to SIPRI data, Beijing is now the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, behind only the US, France and Russia. Chinese hypersonic missilesWhich can travel at least five times the speed of sound and evade most air defenses, exceeding Western capabilities.
“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 questions. It says Beijing’s weapons programs are solely to “protect national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
the state runs
The Communist Party of China has sought military self-reliance since it took power in 1949. Although it developed its nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities under Mao Zedong, it lagged behind in other modern military technologies.
A Western embargo on arms sales to China following the deadly crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 complicated the task for Beijing.
Subsequent Chinese leaders have increased spending to support the purchase of foreign technology and indigenous weapons development.
In the 1990s, China purchased Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter planes and reverse-engineered them To build your own version: J-11s. Russian state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec later accused China of illegally copying Russian military hardware, including Sukhoi aircraft.
In 2016, a Chinese aviation executive confessed to the crime in America For conspiring to hack and steal data from US 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 and struggled with inefficiency and corruption, while resisting government efforts to foster cooperation with civilian partners.
The Aero Engine – also known as AECC, and approved by the US in 2020 and 2021 – was created by pooling top scientists and resources from dozens of aerospace companies and research institutes. Beijing poured billions of dollars of capital into the new group to compete with companies like General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Beijing also merged two state-owned companies to create the world’s largest shipbuilder.
Such moves have helped China accelerate the development of domestic aircraft carriers, submarines and warplanes, such as Beijing’s second stealth fighter, the J-35, which Public debut in 2024 This meant that China was joining the US as the only nations operating more than one model of stealth fighter.
new emphasis
Mastering the jet engine was one of the biggest challenges. A top Chinese military test pilot told a Chinese newspaper in 2016 that domestically produced engines struggled with insufficient thrust, high fuel consumption rates and poor reliability.
AECC promoted research collaboration with Chinese universities and said it used new technologies, including artificial intelligence, to accelerate engine design and testing. State media portrayed AECC engineers as inspiring figures helping China break the Western technological monopoly.
The efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Newer versions of Chinese jet fighters originally designed with Russian engines – including so-called “fourth generation” fighters such as the J-10 and J-11 – have been fitted with engines developed and produced by Chinese entities that were brought under the AECC.
China’s first fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft, J-20, Was displayed with Chinese engine The first time in 2021, almost five years after the jet’s official unveiling.
The new J-35 stealth fighter is equipped with Chinese-made engines, similar to the American F-35, according to a recent state-television program. Beijing has also unveiled a new version of its Y-20 heavy transporter equipped with Chinese-made engines instead of Russian models.
According to procurement documents obtained by researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, AECC-affiliated researchers are pushing to develop advanced propulsion technologies, including a class of engines that can convert to hypersonic mode at low speeds.
According to Steve Russell, general manager of Edison Works, GE Aerospace’s advanced military projects unit, the American engines are still “vastly superior” in terms of reliability, being able to operate for several hours before requiring overhaul.
Still, China “also has a lot of smart engineers. They’re working faster,” Russell said at a recent think-tank discussion. “They’re getting better.”
Although it is difficult for Western analysts to conclusively determine how advanced some of China’s domestically produced weapons are, clues emerged in a clash between Pakistan and India in May, when Pakistan’s Chinese-made J-10 fighter jets reportedly shot down some Indian warplanes, including at least one French-made Rafale jet, using Chinese radar-guided missiles. This was the first known aerial victory achieved by a Chinese-made jet against a Western fighter aircraft.
State broadcaster China Central Television aired a two-part documentary – “The Legend of the J-10” – a few days later, which described the fighter plane’s development in the 1980s, and described it as a sign that “China’s indigenous research and development system for military aircraft has matured.”
The exact circumstances of the shooting remain unclear. Still, it “proves what the Chinese and everyone else are saying — these are capable things and can’t be ignored,” said Brendan Mulvaney, director of the China Aerospace Studies Institute, a U.S. Air Force Department think tank.
get ship shape
China has also indigenized other military capabilities leaving America behind In its ability to build warships quickly and cheaply. According to estimates by independent defense analyst Tom Shugart, from 2015 to 2024, China’s navy will launch 152 ships, while the US will launch 70 ships.
The Chinese fleet is now the largest in the world by number of ships, although the US Navy says its ships are still superior.
Beijing’s third and newest aircraft carrier, Fujian, is the first to be designed and built entirely in China, and features electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft.
Commissioned in November, This represents a notable upgrade from China’s first two carriers, which lack the aircraft-launching catapults standard on US carriers. The first Chinese carrier was refurbished with a Soviet-built hull purchased from Ukraine in 1998, while the design of the second carrier was largely based on the first.
Analysts say China still has some way to go before it can equip its entire military with domestically developed hardware. Soviet and Russian-designed aircraft still account for a significant share of China’s inventory, including strategic bombers. Foreign-designed engines still power many Chinese warplanes and helicopters.
“Xi’s thinking is that China remains weak in the military-innovation-industrial nexus compared to the United States,” said Tai Ming Cheung, a UC San Diego professor who has written books on China’s military and arms industry.
But Xi’s goal is ultimately for China to “comprehensively challenge the United States for global military leadership,” Cheung said.
Write to Chun Han Wong chunhan.wong@wsj.com
