ANNUAL REPORT

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Military Sales
China was the third-largest arms exporter worldwide in aggregate
terms during the 2011–2015 period with $8.5 billion in exports,
following the United States with $46.9 billion and Russia
with $36.2 billion (all in constant 1990 dollars). 288 Comparing fiveyear
periods, China’s exports of major arms rose 88 percent from
$4.5 billion between 2006–2010 and 2011–2015, while U.S. and
Russian exports rose 27 and 28 percent, respectively,* meaning
China’s share of global arms sales rose from 3.6 to 5.9 percent. 289
During the past five years China has sold arms to 37 countries,
with Pakistan (35 percent), Bangladesh (20 percent), and Burma
(Myanmar) (16 percent) as top recipients. 290 China’s customer base
has also extended to Africa, the Middle East, and South America,
with exports to Algeria, Nigeria, and Venezuela surging late in this
period. 291 Over two-thirds of African countries now use military
equipment from China, including at least ten countries that only
began using Chinese arms over the past decade, according to a report
published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
in 2016. 292 All recipients of China’s arms exports to date have been
low- and middle-income countries (see Figure 8). 293
Figure 8: China’s Arms Sales by Recipient, 2011–2015
(constant 1990 dollars)
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database.
https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers.
Major Chinese arms exports agreed upon or revealed in 2016 include
the following:
• Nigeria reportedly signed an agreement to purchase the JF–17,
an inexpensive multirole fighter jointly produced by China and
Pakistan, 292 in January 2016. 295 If the agreement is fulfilled,
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* This represents a decline from last year’s comparison of back-to-back five-year periods
(2005–2009 and 2010–2014), which showed a 143 percent rise. U.S.-China Economic and Security
Review Commission, 2015 Annual Report to Congress, November 2015, 254.
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