China's defence industry has exported malfunctioning and defective military equipment in recent years—leaving countries short of what's needed for their security while also draining military budgets. Beijing has long been the main supplier of military equipment to the Bangladesh armed forces. Over the past decade $2.59 billion was reportedly spent by Bangladesh on acquiring Chinese military equipment.
But in recent years, Bangladesh defence forces have complained to Chinese companies supplying spare parts for its corvettes, petrol crafts and inshore patrol vehicles about manufacturing defects and technical problems. Some of the major problems that Bangladesh military forces faced with Chinese millitary hardware are:
● The Bangladesh forces reported several technical problems with the Chinese-made F-7 fighter aircraft.
● Bangladesh has reported that Chinese-made radar on its fighter aircraft has poor accuracy, and the aircraft itself lacks beyond-visual-range missile and airborne interception radar.
● The Bangladesh Air Force reported problems with the firing of munitions loaded on the Chinese-manufactured K-8W aircraft shortly after they were delivered in 2020. Bangladesh lost its two pilots when the K-8W aircraft they were flying crashed. Short-range air defence systems acquired for the Bangladesh military were reported to be defective.
● In 2022, the Bangladesh Army expressed its displeasure with China North Industries Corporation (Norinco)’s supply of tank ammunition, rejecting it as not being tested. Bangladesh Army holds over 40 Main Battle Tanks (MBT2000) procured from M/s NORINCO, China in 2012-13. NORINCO is facing difficulties in supplying spare parts to Bangladesh for the repair and maintenance of the tanks.
● The quality of Chinese supplied naval platforms for the Bangladesh Navy has also come under the scanner. Chinese 053H3 Frigates (BNS Umar Farooq and BNS Abu Ubaidah) arrived at Mongla Port Bangladesh in 2020, after experiencing multiple defects en route. This included a non-functioning navigation radar and gun system. The Chinese have reportedly asked for additional payment to repair the boats.
● Even the basic trainer aircraft Diamond DA-40 procured from China did not come in good condition. There were snags with the operation of various control systems.
● Offering a great discount, China sold two used Type-035G Ming-class submarines to Bangladesh for just over USD 100 million each. However, these submarines were found to have outlived their utility. Repeated requests to Beijing for assistance have gone unheeded. Despite the initial promise, Chinese military equipment failed to pass post-delivery tests, which left purchasing country Bangladesh in a precarious position, without the expected level of security and depleting its military budgets. The lack of technological compatibility with Chinese military equipment is also costly. As a recipient country, Bangladesh lacks trained personnel to solve problems and face difficulties in obtaining spare parts.
There have been issues with regard to training of Bangladeshi personnel by China as well. Some reports indicate that Bangladesh air force officers were mistreated by Chinese officers at the Aviation University of Changchun. According to a 2023 report by the RAND Corporation the difficulties in acquiring replacement parts and lack of technological compatibility with the Chinese military equipment have been turning expensive propositions for Bangladesh and others. Bangladesh had once withheld the payment as the Chinese FM-90 Surface to Air Missiles systems had developed multiple snags.
The report states that there is a lack of transparency and accountability in Chinese defence contracts, and increasingly a lot of countries have little or no faith in Chinese companies because of poor after-sales support and equipment that rapidly declines into non-functional machinery. Developing countries like Bangladesh are forced to turn to the Chinese, who practised much more advantageous prices than Westerners. For this reason, Bangladesh Army acquired light weapons, artillery and armoured vehicles produced (mostly copied) by Norinco. Not just to Bangladesh, China has supplied defective equipment & weapons to most countries. Complicated training procedures and poor contract evaluation results in ballooning costs for maintenance and spare parts. The Chinese military equipment exports are facing issues like poor quality and lack of maintenance services. Chinese arms are often cheaper than comparable products from other exporters, but after-sale service support is costly.
The underdeveloped and developing countries suffer due to this cheap defective equipment and often resell them and suffer huge losses. In a speech before defence attaches and ambassadors in Washington DC on 31 October 2019, R. Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs at the US State Department, warned that China is using arms transfers as a means of getting its foot in the door - a door that, once opened, China quickly exploits both to exert influence and to gather intelligence." Cooper continued, warning, "To quote another Latin phrase - caveat emptor! - Buyer, beware. We have seen countries around the world leap at the chance to obtain high-tech, low-cost defensive capabilities, only to see their significant investments crumble and rust in their hands." About 60% of China’s exports went to Algeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan from 2016-2020. But the downside to being a major arms supplier is that China has earned an international reputation in recent decades as being the home of a prolific copycat culture.
The Chinese have become proficient at cloning products. As per Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, director of the Miami-based Inter-American Institute for Democracy, “Everything the Chinese sell is backward technology that they copied from the West.” Berzaín added that when some new technology comes out in the U.SChina quickly retro-engineers it and presents their pirated copy within months, “Beijing does not have its own technological development, because that costs a lot of money.” The result of the low quality defence equipment which also happens to be second rate duplicated technology is that in 2020, China’s exports dropped to just 759 million TIV – the lowest level since 2008. SIPRI’s Trend-Indicator Values, does not directly measure the financial value of an arms sale in a specific currency; instead, it allows for comparisons between countries and across time.
Accordingly, from 2010 to 2020, China exported nearly 16.6 billion TIV worth of conventional weapons across the globe, averaging 1.5 billion TIV per year. But in 2020, China’s exports dropped to just 759 million TIV – the lowest level since 2008. In market share terms, China’s arms exports shrank from 5.6% to 5.2%. Despite the fact that Chinese companies carry a stigma for offering poor service to foreign militaries, and products that are not always reliable or that do not perform as advertised they continue to draw customers because of pricing. Even though clients know that a Chinese helicopter, fighter or tank may not be as reliable as an American one, they can be sure it will certainly be much cheaper. The US imposes far tighter restrictions and regulations when it comes to selling weapons.
This, plus price and politics, often makes China a more appealing source for military equipment for countries. Here too the Chinese military equipment appears to be losing the edge. Bangladesh Navy has reportedly highlighted to China Vanguard Industry Co Limited the increasing cost of defence items even as prices of defence items purchased from European and US Defense companies were reducing. Since Dhaka procured over 70 per cent of its arms from China in 2014-2018, Beijing is apprehensive about the Bangladesh Defense Forces' dissatisfaction with the quality of supplies and its defence pricing. Wary of Dhaka diversifying its defence supplies and acquiring quality defence items from India, Europe and the US, Beijing has tried to allay Bangladeshi defence concerns about the increase in price and low-quality defence items.
The Chinese army has arranged to hold its first military exercises with its Bangladesh counterpart this month. Beijing is deeply concerned over Dhaka's proposed purchase of defence-related items from India under the USD 500 million Line of Credit.
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