Defense Focus: China's weapons -- Part 3

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The weapons that China wants from Russia -- and that Moscow won't sell Beijing -- provide a remarkable insight into the current transitional state of the Chinese arms industry.

For although China now has arguably the broadest low-tech industrial base on Earth and a space development program that has more promise and vastly more resources devoted to it than those of either the United States or Russia, Beijing remains dependent on enormous quantities of foreign imports for most of its crucial land weapons systems.

Up to a few years ago, Chinese orders accounted for up to 40 percent of Russian arms export volumes worth $6.5 billion, but today they have dramatically shrunk because of an enduring deadlock.

Russia wants to sell a lot of its older, cast-off weapons to China. But China wants to buy Russia's most modern ones, especially ones that can be used for land warfare. Beijing also wants co-production deals so that it can buy the technology to make such weapons itself. Beijing says it no longer needs relatively ineffective Russian weapons without the relevant production licenses and that Moscow should start selling more advanced, hard-hitting and high-tech weaponry and military equipment.

Most importantly, China wants to launch their joint production, to receive state-of-the-art defense technologies, inventions and composite materials. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has proven willing to make such deals with other countries. Within the last year it has signed lucrative contracts with Venezuela to build factories to manufacture Kalashnikov automatic rifles and other weapons and with India to co-produce a supersonic cruise missile. But it flatly refuses to make any such deals with China.

The Chinese armaments industry still cannot make any world-class Main Battle Tank of its own. We know this because Beijing wants to buy Russia's formidable T-90, but the Russians won't sell. However, they have just concluded a multibillion-dollar contract to sell 347 T-90s to India.

According to Russian experts, the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army wants to buy large batches of Russian-made Shmel -- Bumblebee -- rocket infantry flame-throwers, 120mm Nona-SVK and Vena self-propelled guns, 152mm Msta-S self-propelled artillery systems, 300mm Smerch -- Tornado -- multiple-launch rocket systems -- MLRSs, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers -- APCs, Mil Mi-28N Havoc and Kamov Ka-50 Hokum "Black Shark" attack helicopters, various types of 3-D radars, naval Shtil-1 R-29RM -- SS-N-23 -- surface-to-air missiles on vertical launchers, as well as electronic counter-measures -- ECM -- systems, Ka-27 and Helix Ka-28 ship-borne helicopters, know-how for manufacturing fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft engines, highly alloyed steels and other materials.

In other words, it can safely be said that China's arms industry, for all the country's astonishing economic and industrial achievements, is still incapable of making a vast range of weapons, especially for land warfare and tactical air support of ground operations that it must buy from other sources.

China's domestic arms industry can be said to have hit a plateau, or glass ceiling. It has reached maturity in a limited number of areas where it does what it knows how to do extremely well. But the Chinese, understandably, are not satisfied with that. They want to import the technology and expertise to mass produce robust, state-of-the-art weapons and combat equipment that is comparable with American, Western and Indian output. The natural partner to help them climb this industrial mountain is Russia. But so far, the Russians aren't playing.

This continuing weakness has profound implications for China's diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come.

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Next: Why China needs Russia