World War 3? US, China tension keeps escalating
US President Donald Trump (left) and China President Xi Jinping |
The rivalry between America and
China has seen both sides step up international arms sales and transfers as
they seek to strengthen military ties with key allies, according to a report
published recently.
The study by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which examined the volume of
international transfers of major weapons between 2008 and 2017, showed China’s
arms exports represented 5.7 percent of the world’s share of arms exports
between 2013-17 – up by more than a third from the 4.6 percent recorded between
2008-12.
The report was published a week after
China unveiled an 8.1 percent increase in military spending over a three-year
period, although China’s state media defended the rise as proportionate and
low, adding that it would not lead to an arms race with the United States.
The administration of US
President Donald Trump has dubbed China as a “rival,” and the latest SIPRI
report shows how the US has used arms transfers as a foreign policy tool to
offset Beijing’s growing influence.
For example, US arms deliveries
to India grew by 557 percent between 2008 and 2017, the year China and India
became embroiled in a protracted border dispute over the Doklam region in the
Himalayas.
“This development is part of the
growing strategic partnership between the two countries under which the USA has
begun to supply India with advanced military equipment,” the report said.
The US has also started to
increase its security cooperation with Vietnam, which is embroiled in a dispute
with Beijing over the South China Sea.
In 2017 it delivered one patrol
ship, the USS Morgenthau, to Vietnam – the first major US arms transfer to that
country.
Tensions between China and Japan
in the East China Sea also saw Japan moving closer to the US, the report said.
It said Tokyo turned to the US
for several types of advanced weapons between 2013 and 2017, including the
first batches of a total of 42 combat aircraft.
Japan also ordered advanced air
and missile defence systems from the US in the same period.
But in cases where US relations
with other countries had deteriorated the result was a fall in arms transfers.
For example, the report said that
Venezuela, which once relied on the US as its main arms supplier, had rebuilt
its armed forces with weapons from China and Russia after ties with Washington
soured following Hugo Chavez’s election as president in 1999.
As China became increasingly
capable of producing its own advanced weapons, its arms exports increased by 38
percent and its arms imports decreased by 19 percent in 2013-2017 compared with
2008-2012.
The report showed China delivered
major arms to 48 countries in the past five years, with Pakistan topping the
list, followed by Bangladesh and Algeria.
“China was the largest arms
supplier to Pakistan in 2008–12 and 2013–17. Although the volume of China’s
arms exports to Pakistan remained roughly the same in both periods, its share
of Pakistan’s arms imports rose from 45 per cent in 2008–12 to 70 percent in
2013–17 due to the overall decrease in Pakistan’s arms imports between those
periods,” the report stated.
The report also said China’s arms
exports to Africa rose by 55 percent over the period.
Military expert Collin Koh, from
the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore, said higher value military items like warships and
fighter jets were the major reason for the rise in China’s arms exports.
“This is most notable in naval
sales. For example, submarines to Pakistan and Thailand, and corvettes to
Bangladesh and Algeria. Even with land-based systems, China has also made
inroads in higher value sales, such as its long-range rocket artillery,” he
said.
This article appeared in the
South China Morning Post print edition as: China sells more arms as it vies
with US: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2136877/chinas-arms-sales-rise-it-vies-us-influence-world-stage
Comments
Post a Comment