China’s falling arms imports signal massive growth in military self-reliance

SIPRI report shows Chinese-developed technologies are replacing imported hi-tech weaponry in several spheres

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Last year’s Zhuhai airshow, China’s largest aerospace trade expo, showcased a variety of technologies including drones, weapon systems, aircraft, electronic warfare, and space technologies. Photo: EPA

Published: 8:00am, 10 Mar 2025

China’s arms imports dropped by nearly two-thirds over the past five years as overseas weapons purchases were increasingly substituted with home-grown technology, according to a Swedish think tank.

In a report released today, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said there was a 64 per cent fall in deliveries to China between 2020-24, compared with the previous five years.

The change was driven by the growth in China’s domestic weapons industry, with locally designed and produced systems replacing equipment that was previously mainly bought from Russia – a trend that was likely to continue, the report said.

Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with SIPRI’s arms transfers programme, said it took 30 years for China to successively replace imported hi-tech weapons with locally developed technologies.

“In the last five years, the biggest things that they still imported from Russia were basically two things, helicopters and engines – they are actually extremely difficult to produce if you don’t have a background in it – and that is where China has broken through,” he said.

“China [now] makes its own engines for combat aircraft, transport aircraft and ships. The same [goes] with helicopters, where China has developed its own helicopters, completely Chinese, and is phasing out imports of those from Russia and also from European designs.”