What is the purpose of China's arms purchase?

By June 2019, Russia will complete the transfer of two S-400 air defense missile regiments to China. This is a welcome event for the Russian defense industry, but some experts are concerned that China is buying the S-400 to copy it.

Here are some of the notable military technologies that China has stolen from Russia.

Historically, the Chinese defense industry has been oriented towards the achievements of Soviet weapons experts. Until the late 1990s, almost all of the Chinese military's equipment was either licensed copies or illegal imitations of Soviet weapons. From assault rifles to nuclear weapons. Today, the Chinese military is increasingly seeing models of equipment that closely resemble Western counterparts, but Russian weapons are still the most copied.

Su-27 and J-11

The most obvious and brazen example of Russian military technology theft is the Chinese J-11 fighter, which is a copy of the Russian Su-27SK. Since 1992, Russia has supplied China with 76 Su-27SKs, and in 1995, Russia sold a license to produce another 200 to China. Since 1996, they have been producing these aircraft under the name J-11 in Shenyang using Russian-supplied kits. But then China rejected the Russian parts and started assembling these fighters with its own parts.

Russian Su-27SM fighter (left) and Chinese J-11B (right)

Moscow calls this “import substitution” a blatant theft of intellectual property, and in response, China has produced three more J-11 variants. The latest is the J-15 carrier-based fighter, which Western experts say is even superior to the Russian prototype. The weak point of China’s copycat aircraft remains the engine, as Chinese-made engines are still inferior to genuine Russian engines in terms of thrust.

Tor-M1 and HQ-17

Looking at the appearance of the Chinese HQ-17 air defense missile system, even a novice expert will easily recognize the distinctive features of the Russian Tor-M1 air defense missile system. From 1997-2001, Russia transferred 35 Tor systems to China and we see that these combat vehicles have been enthusiastically disassembled and reassembled, now under the Chinese name.

Russia's Tor-M1 air defense missile system (left) and China's HQ-17 (right)

The first images of the Chinese system were published in 2014. Representatives of the Almaz-Antei Scientific-Production Association (the manufacturer of the Tor-M1) at that time harshly stated that the Chinese copy was far inferior to the Russian original in terms of performance. However, many Western experts, on the contrary, believe that the HQ-17 has higher combat capabilities due to its more modern radar and components. It is not surprising that the HQ-17 was adopted into service 20 years after its creator.

S-300 and HQ-9

China’s most fearsome knockoff in the field of air defense missiles is the HQ-9 (Hongqi 9) air defense missile system. The system’s appearance is painfully similar to the S-300PMU-1 system, with many experts bluntly calling it a direct copy of the S-300 (Russia transferred these systems to China in 1996).

Russia's S-300 air defense missile system (left) and China's HQ-9 (right)

Beijing has strongly denied the copying allegations, insisting that the systems are only superficially similar. Indeed, there are major differences between the two systems, namely that the HQ-9 missile is 1 meter shorter than the S-300's 48N6 guided air defense missile, and has a shorter range of just 125 kilometers compared to 200 kilometers for the Russian missile.

However, the HQ-9 has become a competitor to Russian air defense missile systems in the international arms market. In early 2015, it was reported that China had supplied several HQ-9 systems to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Previously, the HQ-9 had beaten the S-300 in a major international tender to supply air defense missile systems to Türkiye worth $4 billion. However, in the end, under pressure from the US and NATO, Türkiye rejected the HQ-9 in favor of domestically produced systems.

Smerch and PHL-3

Chinese engineers did not ignore another famous product of the Russian defense industry - multiple launch rocket systems. The Chinese А-100 multiple launch rocket system and its improved variant PHL-03 are direct descendants of the Russian 9K58 Smerche system, even to the point that the rockets are interchangeable in the launch tubes.

Russian 9K58 Smerch multiple launch rocket system (left) and Chinese PHL-03 (right)

Interestingly, unlike the copied weapons systems mentioned above, Russia has not officially supplied China with Smerch. Chinese media reported that in the early 2000s, China had acquired three Smerch vehicles from “one of the third countries.” It was probably Ukraine.

These Russian-made multiple launch rocket systems have won recognition not only within the Chinese military but also on the international market. In 2013-2014, China sold dozens of multiple launch rocket systems with the export name AR-2 to Sudan and Morocco.

Paltus and Type-041

In 2004, US satellites photographed an unknown Chinese submarine that was later identified as a slightly modified Russian Project 877EKM Paltus. Russia’s Admiraty Shipyard delivered a number of Paltus diesel-electric submarines to China in the mid-1990s.

What weapons technologies did China “steal” from Russia? Russia’s Project 877EKM Paltus diesel-electric submarine (left) and China’s Type-041 (right)

Experts have noted that China's new submarine, codenamed Type-041, has similar characteristics to Russian submarines. China has built a total of nearly 10 of these submarines.

In 2013, China introduced a smaller variant of its submarine, the S-20 class. The new submarine has attracted the attention of a number of potential foreign customers. Russia is not the only country that has suffered because of Chinese counterfeit weapons. In 2012, the Chinese military adopted the Dongfeng-EQ2050 jeep, which was a copy of the famous American military vehicle Hummer. Recently, images of China's new Z-20 combat helicopter have appeared online, which is clearly a copy of the American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

As for simpler weapon systems such as infantry weapons, portable air defense missile systems, and anti-tank guided missile systems, experts probably don't bother counting copies and counterfeits here.

China is the leading thief of intellectual property on earth and weapons are no exception to this.

According to VTC