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Beijing Parades Its Rearmament

From the series The war industry in China

The grand military parade held in Beijing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese people’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression, attended by 26 heads of State and government from Latin American, African, and Asian countries, was first and foremost a show of force.

CCTV, China’s State television, said: The parade featured unmanned intelligent systems, underwater combat units, cyber and electronic forces, and hypersonic weapons, highlighting the growing capacity of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to harness emerging technologies, adapt to the evolving character of warfare, and prevail in future conflicts (South China Morning Post, September 4th).

The French newspaper Les Echos commented ironically, yet with concern: The only symbol of peace was the arrival at the end of the flight of 80,000 white doves and 80,000 balloons. [...] Fortunately for the American general staff, military art is not limited to parades, otherwise the comparison between the impressive ballet organised in Beijing and the disastrous improvised parade last June in Washington would be truly embarrassing (September 4th).

The Parisian newspaper notes that naval forces were absent from the Beijing parade: China boasts 370 combat ships, compared to 297 in the US Navy. The Economist points out that 70% of Chinese naval units were built after 2010, compared to 25% of American ones. Over the last twenty years, the ratio of vertical launch systems on these ships has gone from 222 to 1 in favour of the US to 1 to 1 today.

The nuclear triad

China currently has around 600 nuclear warheads, expected to reach 1,000 by 2030. The parade, according to the Global Times, marked the official debut of an air-launched strategic missile, [meaning] that China has become one of the few countries in the world with a nuclear triad, i.e., capable of launching atomic weapons from the sky, sea, and land.

Timothy Heath, a specialist at the American Rand Corporation, agrees, also recalling that Chinese submarine ballistic missiles used to have a short range: This has now been corrected. China has a robust nuclear second-strike capability that will be extremely difficult to disarm with a first strike by any adversary (South China Morning Post, September 4th).

Pakistani commercial

On the eve of the military parade, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in China for the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) meeting in Tianjin, but he did not attend the military parade, and with good reason. In the brief clash between the Pakistani and Indian air forces last May, the latter lost several fighter jets, including at least one Rafale. It seems certain that the Rafale was shot down by a Pakistani JF-20 fighter jet firing a PL-15 air-to-air missile, both of which are made by China. It is possible that the missile was not registered in the Rafale’s “Spectra” electronic warfare system and was therefore not identified as an imminent threat.

PL-15s, like the American AMRAAM and the European Meteor missiles, have a range of 200 km and are fired after the enemy has been identified at a distance by radar. In fact, the brief Indo-Pakistani clash acted as an advertisement for the Chinese arms industry.

The war industry

Among the top 30 global arms manufacturers listed in the latest SIPRI ranking, there are eight Chinese companies, fourteen American companies, five European companies, and one each from Russia, South Korea, and Israel. Thus, Chinese companies are of considerable size – comparable to or larger than Airbus and Leonardo – but they are dependent on China’s huge domestic market.

With the Beijing parade, writes La Stampa, the aim is to send a direct message: Chinese weapons are available for export, an attractive proposition for countries which are excluded from the latest generation of American weapons systems. The German research centre MERICS (Mercator Institute for China Studies) points out that Beijing has been sending representatives of its arms industry abroad. Last year, Norinco participated in the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris with self-propelled and armoured howitzers, while AVIC, based in Chengdu, promoted its J-10 at the Egypt International Air Show.

The Chinese arms industry accounted for 5.8% of global arms exports over the last four years, although 75% of its systems went to Pakistan (63%), Serbia, and Thailand. The rest was distributed among some 40 countries, including 21 in sub-Saharan Africa. The Economist writes that these relationships have also resulted in mining, infrastructure, and military agreements – eight African defence ministers and ten chiefs of staff have attended Chinese academies. Norinco produces tanks, but also excavators, freight wagons, mining machinery, and chemical plants.

During China’s economic take-off, this diversification strategy was a directive from Beijing’s political leaders, writes MERICS. Today, the directive has been reversed: the war industry must become more vertically integrated and focus on military modernisation. With large State-owned conglomerates involved, this is not an easy reform, as the data on the right shows. But the parade should encourage it.

Lotta Comunista, September 2025

THE SHARP TEETH OF THE DRAGON

Company Turnover military Total Military as % of total World ranking
AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) 20.8 83.4 25 8
Norinco (China North Industries Corporation) 20.5 76.6 27 9
CETC (China Electronics Technology Group Corporation) 16.1 55.9 29 10
CASC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation) 12.3 41.2 30 14
CSSC (China State Shipbuilding Corporation) 11.5 48.9 23 15
CASIC (China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation) 8.8 27.6 32 18
AECC (Aero Engine Corporation of China) 5.7 .. .. 23
CSGC (China South Industries Group Corporation) 5.1 43.9 11 28
CNNC (China National Nuclear Corporation) 1.8 39.7 4 74
Revenue in billions of dollars 2023.
Source: SIPRI.
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