Newly available data suggest that China is the world’s second-biggest arms producer, behind the US and ahead of Russia, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said yesterday.
A lack of transparency means the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has excluded China from its annual global rankings of arms makers, but it said credible financial information had become available for four major companies.
The data, covering the period from 2015 to 2017, allowed it to compile what it called the most comprehensive picture of Chinese companies’ weapons production to date.
“With the increase of available data on these companies, it is now possible to develop reasonably reliable estimates of the scale of the Chinese arms industry,” the institute said.
The four companies had combined estimated arms sales of US$54.1 billion for 2017, it said, which would put them among the top 20 arms producers in the world.
“Three of the companies would be ranked in the top 10,” it said.
Total US arms sales in 2017 were US$226.6 billion, and in Russia, US$37.7 billion, according to the think tank’s Top 100 list for that year.
Aircraft and avionics group Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC, 中國航空工業) would rank as the sixth-largest arms producer, with estimated 2017 sales of US$20.1 billion, while land systems-focused China North Industries Group Corp (NORINCO, 中國北方工業集團) would place eighth, with an estimated US$17.2 billion in sales, the institute said.
The other two companies it looked at, China Electronics Technology Group Corp (CETC, 中國電子科技集團) and China South Industries Group Corp (CSGC, 中國兵器裝備集團), had estimated sales of US$12.2 billion and US$4.6 billion respectively, a spokesperson for the institute said.
China’s foreign and defense ministries did not respond to faxed requests for comment during a public holiday.
Calls to AVIC, NORINCO and CSGC went unanswered, and CETC declined to comment.
The Sweden-based think tank has said global expenditure in 2018 hit US$1.8 trillion, the highest level since the end of the Cold War, fueled by increased spending in the US and China.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)