China is the world’s second largest defense producer, according to a new research by a Sweden-based defense and arms research center.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) claimed it collected data from 2015-17 period on the value of arms sales by four major Chinese arms companies.
“If the four Chinese arms companies investigated in the study were included in the Top 100 [2017], they would all rank among the top 20, with combined estimated arms sales totaling $54.1 billion,” the SIPRI said in a statement.
The SIPRI Top 100 is an annual ranking of the world’s largest 100 arms-producing and military services companies. Chinese arms companies have not been in the list, so far, due to “lack of transparency,” as well as lack of data.
“China is the second-largest arms producer in the world, following the U.S., but ahead of Russia,” the statement said.
The value of Chinese companies’ arms sales have been “either unknown or hard to estimate” due to lack of information.
The SIPRI investigation has listed four Chinese companies which cover three sectors of conventional arms production, including aerospace, electronics and land systems.
“Three of the [Chinese defense] companies would rank in the top 10 [in 2017],” the statement added.
It identified Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) as the largest of the four companies. AVIC sales total $20.1 billion and would rank the sixth largest in the world.
Similarly, China North Industries Group Corporation has sales worth $17.2 billion, SIPRI said, adding: “[It] is in fact the world’s largest producer of land systems.”
These figures are still most likely to be underestimates, the institute stressed, and added: "A lack of transparency in the arms sales figures of Chinese arms companies continues to hinder a complete understanding of China’s arms industry.”
