Brandon J. Weichert
Heaven help the Americans if great power war ever comes to their doorstep. The United States’ biggest geostrategic foe—China—has become a technological dynamo and a mass production leviathan, even as it has encountered significant political and economic headwinds of its own in recent years.
After being the industrial base of the world for decades, as well as the second-largest economy, Beijing is deciding to turn its productive might into building a defense arms industry that will rival that of the United States.
China Has Turned Mass Production Into a Science
This isn’t speculative, either.
Evidence from this year alone abounds showing how prolific China’s defense arms industry is becoming worldwide. During the India-Pakistan conflict in May, Chinese weapons and warplanes used by the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) performed better than expected against the Western-provided platforms employed by the Indian military. Since then, interest in Chinese arms exports has exploded around the world.
Now, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), a key builder of major Chinese warplanes, might be moving into a massive 280,000 square meter facility. SAC produces China’s J-15, J-16, J-35, and J-50 warplanes. These are direct challenges to multiple Western warplanes on the global arms export market, notably systems, like the F-16 or the American fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II.
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