Russia sells weapons to China -- Ascending Light

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Date Posted: 12:56:14 10/03/05 Mon
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 172.150.255.11
Subject: Russia sells weapons to China
In reply to: Weird_Enigma 's message, "Three Gorges dam forces water to fill with sewage, junk, chemicals" on 12:36:11 05/03/04 Mon

China an eager customer of Russia

Moscow gains money; Beijing gains weapons -- and more technology

TIM JOHNSON
Knight Ridder

BEIJING - Reaching into its deepening pockets, China has gone shopping for new weapons in Russia and, to a lesser extent, in Israel and Ukraine.

Russia has been delivering an average of $2 billion a year worth of equipment to China since 2000, handing over fighter jets, missile systems, submarines and destroyers.

China accounts for 30 percent to 50 percent of Russia's weapons exports, keeping its arms industry healthy, and it has tried to leverage that clout to extract new technologies from Moscow.

"The Russians held the line at the beginning. But as they get deeper in with the Chinese, they are finding the Chinese pressing for the good stuff," said James Mulvenon, an expert on the Chinese military at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, a Washington consultancy.

Two new Kilo-class fleet attack submarines are being sent from a St. Petersburg shipyard to China, joining four already delivered, Mulvenon said. The Kilo class is one of the most advanced and quietest diesel-battery submarines in the world, likely equipped with supersonic anti-ship missiles.

Like much of Russia's arms exports to China, "nothing is dumbed down," Mulvenon said.

Russian collaboration has allowed China to amass a fleet of fighter aircraft able to fly longer range in worse weather and carry more lethal weapons, totaling some 200 Russian Su-27 and Su-30 jet fighters and bombers.

Russia showed off the aircraft, as well as long-range TU-95MS and TU-23M3 bombers, during unprecedented joint Sino-Russian war games in late August near the Yellow Sea.

"There is no better advertisement for our arms and military hardware than a real demonstration of their capabilities in the course of practical exercises," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

For its part, Ukraine has sold China gas turbine power plants used in destroyers and is in talks on offering heavy-transport aircraft and aerospace technology.

China's arms-buying relationship with Israel dates to the early 1980s. Israel began selling arms to Beijing in a bid to limit Chinese assistance to its foes in the Middle East.

"Israel does not sell any platforms, like aircraft or ships. It basically sells avionics, upgrading, (and) electronic surveillance," said P.R. Kumaraswamy, an expert on Israeli military industries at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The relationship has proved thorny, straining Israel's relationship with Washington.

U.S. Sale Criticized

A planned American weapons sale to Taiwan will damage relations between Washington and Beijing, a Chinese official said, ahead of next month's visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China could never accept the proposed $15.3 billion sale -- involving eight diesel-powered submarines, 12 anti-submarine aircraft and six Patriot missile batteries -- because it constituted interference in China's affairs.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, and China has threatened the use of force against the island if it declares formal independence.

"(The weapons deal) would undermine national security and the unification of China and harm relations between the U.S. and China," Qin said last week. "We urge the U.S. to clearly recognize the serious harm the weapons package entails."

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Associated Press

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China's rapid military buildup makes U.S. more watchful -- Weird_Enigma, 13:09:42 10/03/05 Mon