The Wall Street Journal: How China developed its military capabilities to compete with the West
In less than a decade, China has made a quantum leap by building an integrated military industry capable of competing with the West, after decades of reliance on imports from Russia and Europe, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal.
In his report, journalist Chun Han Wong highlights how Beijing has gone from being the world’s largest arms importer to a rising military-industrial power capable of manufacturing and even exporting most of what it needs, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision.
The report referred to 2016, when Beijing launched the China Aerospace Engine Company (AECC), in a move that was considered a high-risk bet at the time, as the development of aircraft engines was one of the most complex weaknesses in China’s military capabilities.
The Chinese president’s goal is to enable his country to comprehensively challenge the United States to lead global military power.
Less than a decade later, China’s stealth fighters entered service with home-made engines, or Chinese hearts, as Chinese officials put it.
However, the report stressed that many of the Chinese military’s fighters and helicopters still rely on foreign-made engines.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China’s share of global arms imports has fallen sharply, dropping out of the list of the world’s top 10 importers, from topping the list two decades ago.
Analysts point out that Beijing is now able to produce most of the military technology it needs, even if it continues to use some foreign components for cost or quality reasons.
Promoting military self-sufficiency is part of a broader project to reduce dependence on outsiders, from food and energy to semiconductors, with the aim of preventing the West from pressuring China in the event of a conflict.
Beijing has relied on a combination of policies to achieve this development: increasing investment in scientific research, restructuring state-owned military industries, and opening up space for private companies to participate in meeting defense needs.
It has also benefited from industrial espionage, cyberattacks and reverse engineering of US equipment, accusations China officially denies, according to the report.
Today, China is the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, after the United States, France, and Russia, and its hypersonic missiles, capable of bypassing most air defense systems, are an example of technological superiority beyond Western capabilities.
After years of complaints within Chinese military circles, the aerospace engine company has succeeded in accelerating development by collaborating with universities and employing artificial intelligence.
The results began to emerge with fighters such as the J-10, J-11, then the G-20 and G-35 stealth fighter jets, which are the counterparts of the American F-35, to be equipped with all-Chinese engines, according to the report’s analysis.
Between 2015 and 2024, the Chinese navy launched 152 ships, compared to 70 for the US Navy.
According to the report, China also launched the Fujian aircraft carrier, the first fully domestically designed and built Chinese carrier, equipped with advanced electromagnetic launch systems for aircraft, comparable to its US counterpart.
Despite this progress, experts say there is still a long way to go: some key components in China’s arsenal, such as strategic bombers, are still based on Soviet or Russian designs, and the quality of some Chinese engines hasn’t yet reached the level of the United States.
However, analysts agree that the overall trend is clear: China is rapidly narrowing the gap.
Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at the University of California, said Xi Jinping’s thinking was based on China still being the weakest party in terms of military-industrial innovation compared to the United States.
But Xi’s goal, according to Cheung, is to enable China to comprehensively challenge the United States to lead global military power.
