Explainer | China’s arms trade: which countries does it buy from and sell to?
- China’s inventory consists of weapons from several countries, primarily Russia
- The country has expanded its military capabilities to become a major exporter itself
China has long been engaged in an arms race with other global leaders to import and produce the most advanced military technology. But where does it acquire its foreign weapons, and where do its own armaments go?
Who is China’s main supplier of weapons?
While China has gradually shifted to manufacturing its own military hardware, much of the country’s imported weaponry still comes from Russia, a collaboration that has persisted since the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.
Russia was an effective alternative – after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ruined the country’s defence industries, business with China provided Russia with the economic means to recuperate. China began importing the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft from Russia in 1992.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated in a report released in December that from 2016 to 2020, 77 per cent of China’s total arms imports were from Russia.
