Wall Street Journal: This is how China developed its military capabilities to compete with the West policy

Within less than a decade, China has succeeded in achieving a qualitative leap in building an integrated military industry capable of competing with the West, after decades of relying on imports from Russia and Europe, according to a report published by the American Wall Street Journal.

Journalist Chun Han Wong highlights in his report how Beijing has transformed from the largest arms importer into a rising military industrial power capable of manufacturing most of what it needs, and even exporting, according to the vision of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Strategic development

The author begins his report by referring to 2016, when Beijing launched the Aviation Engine Corporation of China (AECC), in a move that was considered at the time to be a high-risk bet, as the development of aircraft engines was one of the most complex weaknesses in Chinese military capabilities.

The Chinese president’s goal is to enable his country to “comprehensively challenge the United States for leadership of global military power.”

Less than ten years later, Chinese stealth fighters entered service with locally made engines, or “Chinese hearts,” as Chinese officials put it.

However, the report confirmed that many of the fighters and helicopters in the Chinese army still rely on foreign-designed engines.

This progress was not only technical, according to the report, but also strategic. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China’s share of global arms imports declined sharply, leaving it out of the list of the ten largest importers in the world, after it had topped 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 reasons related to cost or quality, according to the report.

Development factors

The report confirmed that the Chinese leadership places this transformation at the core of its national security vision, as enhancing military self-sufficiency is part of a broader project to reduce dependence on abroad, from food and energy to semiconductors, with the aim of preventing the West from putting pressure on China in the event of a conflict.

To achieve this development, according to the report, Beijing relied on a combination of policies: increasing investment in scientific research, restructuring state-owned military industries, and opening the way for private companies to participate in meeting defense needs.

It also benefited, according to what the report quoted from Western officials and analysts, from industrial espionage, cyber attacks, and reverse engineering of American equipment, accusations that China officially denies.

Today, the report continues, China has become the fourth largest arms exporter in the world, after the United States, France, and Russia, and its hypersonic missiles, which are capable of bypassing most air defense systems, are an example of technological superiority that exceeds Western capabilities.

Air and sea development

One of the most notable areas of breakthrough was in combat aircraft engines, according to the report. After years of complaints within Chinese military circles, the Aviation Engine Company succeeded in accelerating development through cooperation with universities and employing artificial intelligence.

The results began to appear with the provision of fighters, such as the J-10 and J-11, then the J-20 and J-35, the stealth aircraft that is considered a counterpart to the American F-35 fighter, with entirely Chinese engines, according to the report’s analyses.

Progress was not limited to aviation, as China surpassed the United States in building warships, as Beijing’s production became faster and at a lower cost. The writer confirmed that between 2015 and 2024, the Chinese Navy launched 152 ships, compared to 70 for the US Navy.

China also launched the “Fujian” aircraft carrier, according to the report, the first Chinese carrier entirely designed and built locally, equipped with advanced electromagnetic launching systems for aircraft, comparable to its American counterpart.

Despite this progress, experts whose opinions were conveyed in the report believe that there is still a long way to go, as some of the main pieces in the Chinese arsenal, such as strategic bombers, still rely on Soviet or Russian designs, and the quality of some Chinese engines has not yet reached the American level.

However, analysts agree that the overall trend is clear: China is rapidly narrowing the gap.

The report quoted Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at the University of California, as saying that Xi Jinping’s thinking is based on the fact that China is still the weaker 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 for leadership of global military power.”