Buyer Beware – Chinese Military Weapons Are Low Quality, Says US State Department Official (excerpt)
(Source: South China Morning Post; published Nov. 01, 2019)
A road wheel broke off a Chinese tank’s during an international competition in 2018, showing that although it is cheap, Chinese military hardware is deficient in terms of quality compared to its Western competitors. (Twitter photo)
The United States hands out some US$10 billion annually in security and defence grants to allies around the world, but China is muscling in on the weapons market in a bid to weaken US clout using cut-rate pricing, predatory financing and bribery, said R. Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.
“Choosing the United States as a security partner remains far and away the best choice for nations around the world,” Cooper told ambassadors and military attaches during a meeting at the Meridian International Centre, a diplomacy group.
“China is using arms transfers as a means of getting its foot in the door – a door that, once is opened, China quickly exploits both to exert influence and to gather intelligence.”
Cooper pointed to cases where opting not to buy American weapons proved deadly.
When Kenya bought Norinco VN-4 armoured personnel carriers, China’s sales representative declined to sit inside the vehicles during a test firing, he said.
Kenya went ahead in 2016 with the purchase anyway and “sadly dozens of Kenyan personnel have been reportedly killed in those vehicles,” he said. The VN-4, nicknamed “Rhinoceros”, is manufactured by state-owned Chongqing Tiema Industries. (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on the SCMP website.
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