Chairman Mao Zedong said in the 1950s: "We are not arms dealers." "In the decades that followed, China's foreign military aid has been gratuitous, and there is no concept of so-called arms sales."
China's foreign non-reimbursable assistance began in 1958 and has provided more than 1,000 aircraft of various types to 16 countries, including Vietnam, North Korea, Albania, Pakistan, Romania, Bangladesh and Cambodia.
However, China's charity does not always get a good reward. Among them, Albania, known as the "bright light of European socialism", is the biggest "white-eyed wolf".
In the mid-1950s, China and Argentina broke with the Soviet Union. In line with the principle that the "enemy" of the "enemy" is the "friend," the two countries are getting closer and closer, and the relationship is becoming more and more iron.
In the nine years from 1962 to 1970, China successively assisted Albania with 167 aircraft, including J-6, J-7, Chujiao-6, J-5, Zhi-5, Boom-5 and Yun-5, and also assisted Albania in building an aircraft comprehensive repair plant.
However, as China's foreign aid declined, Sino-Arab relations began to drift apart and eventually parted ways.
After the reform and opening up, some countries that have received Chinese aid continue to ask us to provide military products, and China's military industry itself is also very difficult.
Under these circumstances, Comrade Deng Xiaoping said: "It seems that it is not possible to be an improper arms dealer." ”
On January 2, 1979, the central government approved the change of all the original non-reimbursable assistance to three ways: fee-based, barter and non-reimbursable assistance. Since then, the weapons and equipment produced in China have gradually entered the international market like other commodities.
During the Cold War, the turbulent situation in the Middle East provided a stage for Chinese military enterprises to show their skills, and China's share of arms exports even accounted for about 8% of the world's total.
Shortly after the end of the Third Middle East War, the Egyptian Air Force, which had suffered heavy losses, was in dire need of new equipment. Since the relations between China and Egypt have always been good, the Egyptian government wants to let our country provide some aircraft and aviation spare parts.
Soon after, China and Egypt quickly reached an export contract including 44 J-6s, 6 J-6s, and 220 turbojet-6 engines. This is the first time that China's aviation industry has sold fighter jets to the outside world, which has great historical significance.
Due to the smooth performance of this contract, in 1980, China and Egypt signed another export agreement for 60 J-7 fighters, as well as various spare parts and related equipment, with a total amount of more than 200 million US dollars.
The Chinese side also obtained a MiG-23MS fighter through physical exchange, which provided reference for the later development of the Qiang-6 variable swept-wing fighter.
China's arms trade cooperation with Egypt has played a very good exemplary role. Since then, Iran, Iraq, Zambia, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries have purchased a lot of Chinese-made fighters, and the J-6 and J-7 have become popular sought-after goods in many third world countries.
At the end of the last century, as one of the strongest improved J-7 models, the J-7G once provoked the burden of foreign trade of Chinese military aircraft. However, soon after, the J-7G was replaced by another fighter that was also related to the J-7, which was the FC-1 "Dragon".
The "Dragon Dragon" project originated from the "Super-7" project in 1988. In the mid-1980s, the Pakistan Air Force felt that its main fighters could not adapt to the requirements of modern warfare and urgently needed a new fighter to replace its old Mirage 3, Mirage 5 and other fighters.
At that time, Pakistan sought to introduce the US-made F-16 fighter on the one hand, and actively cooperated with China on the other hand, trying to develop a light fighter with a high cost performance.
The "Dragon Fighter" project was led by the China Aviation Technology Import and Export Corporation and the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group Corporation, with the participation of the Pakistan Air Force and the Russian MiG Design Bureau. The market positioning of "Dragon Dragon" is very clear, that is, to replace the "veterans" in the international light fighter market such as miG-21 and F-5.
At the end of 2006, China and Pakistan signed a contract for the small batch production of "Dragon Dragon". Three years later, the two sides once again signed a package contract with a total amount of $1 billion, becoming the largest export order in the history of China's aviation industry.
Compared with the "Dragon Fighter" dedicated to export, Chengfei's other star fighter J-10 has also had the idea of going to sea, and even started the foreign trade version of the model - FC-20.
It is reasonable to say that the performance of the J-10 is much stronger than that of the "Dragon Fighter", and there is also the endorsement of the Chinese Air Force, and the export should not be a problem. Then, since the mass production of the machine, the export situation has been "thunderous, raindrops small", so far the particles have not been harvested.
There are many reasons why the export situation of the J-10 is not ideal. Although there are political factors, the timing of the launch of the J-10 and its own problems cannot be ignored.
The first J-10s were officially equipped with troops in 2003. During this period, due to the needs of combat and military training, the demand for third-generation aircraft in the Chinese Air Force was very large, which led to Chengfei not having excess production capacity to meet foreign trade needs.
The combat effectiveness of the early J-10 models was only equivalent to the F-16A/B Block20, which was not advanced at that time. In particular, the power system of the aircraft is the Al-31FN turbofan engine produced in Russia.
This engine derived from the AL-31 is inferior to its Western counterparts in terms of life, serviceability, fuel consumption rate and thrust-to-weight ratio. And the engine also needs to be imported from Russia, and it is difficult for the J-10 to obtain legal export authority without the permission of the Russian side.
The late improved J-10C of the J-10 uses an active phased array radar, and the engine has also been replaced by a domestic model, which has made a qualitative leap in performance. However, no matter how the aircraft is changed, it is still an air superiority fighter that emphasizes air combat, and the external plug-in capability is very limited, which is difficult to meet the multi-purpose needs of customers.
Although Chinese-made fighters have always been known for their cost performance, some potential customers will still prefer US, Russian or European-produced fighters after shopping around, and the reason is because these countries lack trust in Chinese fighters.
It should be known that the United States, Russia and some European countries are all veteran arms powers, and many of the weapons they produce have been tested in actual combat. Old customers who are accustomed to using the weapons of the United States, Russia and European countries have over time developed path dependence.
If they switch to buying Chinese fighters, they will have to change some or all of the support and training system, which is a very troublesome thing for a country's equipment construction.
In addition, the United States, Russia and other countries have always had their own spheres of influence, so many countries are clearly buying their weapons, but in fact they are paying "protection fees" in disguise. For up-and-coming China, it is not easy to cut a piece of cake from the United States and Russia.
Take AVIC's export star "Dragon Dragon" for example. Since the mass production of the aircraft, Albania, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Uganda, Congo and other countries have shown some interest, but after a period of noise, it is often gone.
At that time, AVIC group had contacted the Bangladeshi side. Unexpectedly, a Russian was killed in the middle of the road. Eventually, the Russians stole the order at a low price of $13 million per MiG-29 and offered $2 million in upgrades per aircraft.
Since then, Myanmar and Malaysia have also switched to Russian military aircraft.
The same story happened to Egypt, an old customer of The Chinese military plane, but this time it was the United States that snatched the love of the knife. Around 2009, Egypt had planned to order 65 Dragon Dragons, but instead purchased a batch of second-hand F-16C/Ds at the same price as the Dragon Dragons.
In recent years, China's fighter exports have been quite unsmooth, and product performance, product positioning and timing of launch should be the most important reasons.
In fact, in the history of China's aviation industry, there has been a clearly positioned, well-timed aircraft, which is once a best-selling K-8 intermediate trainer aircraft in Third World countries.
Designed and manufactured by Nanchang Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, the K-8 trainer is a two-seat intermediate jet trainer/attack aircraft that has been sold to 14 countries and regions to date, with customers in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Overall, the K-8 is an aircraft that can both act as a trainer aircraft and perform ground attack missions, and its practicality and cost performance are very high, which is why the aircraft can last for a long time.
The opposite of the K-8 example is the export J-8II .M of the J-8II.
In terms of performance, the flight quality of the J-8II .M, airborne radar and missiles have different degrees of problems. Until 2000, the aircraft was still unable to form effective combat effectiveness. By this time, F-16s, MiG-29s, and Mirage 2000s were already flying around the world.
The J-8II .M is not too expensive, but it is not much cheaper than the MiG-29, and even more expensive than some second-hand MiG-29s. The MiG-29, even if it is inconspicuous in the third generation of aircraft, has an overwhelming advantage over the J-8II .M.
In addition, even the J-8II .M the second-generation aircraft that originally wanted to be replaced, such as the MiG-21, Mirage 3, F4, etc., also have their own upgrade plans. After the upgrade, the comprehensive performance of these aircraft is almost the same as that of the J-8II .M.
In the end, the untimely J-8II .M became a kind of fighter that was not high or low, and none of them were sold.
Compared with the 1970s and 1980s, the international fighter market is more competitive today. In addition to the traditional Three Poles of the United States, Russia and Europe, South Korea, Turkey and other countries have also joined in, and light fighters with high cost performance such as the FA-50 are very popular with the majority of third world users.
Since China entered the international arms market, due to the impact of the international political situation and diplomatic tactics, arms exports have long relied on a few countries such as Pakistan, Iran, and Thailand, and products have always hovered in the middle and low end.
With the successive service of the United States F22 and F35, the world's fighters have begun to enter the era of stealth, but so far China has not been able to come up with a mature stealth fighter that can be used for foreign trade, which has to be said to be a pity.
In the future, if Chinese fighters want to make achievements in exports, they must keep up with the pace of the times, strive to change the original low-end and cheap image, and participate in transnational exercises as much as possible to gain more exposure and recognition.
In recent years, the export of domestic UAVs has sprung up, gaining a good reputation with excellent actual combat performance, and setting a good example for other military products aimed at export. It is hoped that the manned fighter made in China can also go to the world more like domestic unmanned aerial vehicles, and win the respect and recognition of the world with excellent performance.