CHINA AS ARMS EXPORTER

CHINA IS FIFTH-LARGEST ARMS EXPORTER

Pakistan the main customer as Beijing exceeds Britain's share of weapons market while remaining far behind US and Russia

Reuters/The Guardian, March 18, 2013

China has become the world's fifth-largest arms exporter, according to a Swedish-based thinktank. It is China's highest ranking since the cold war, with Pakistan the main recipient.

China's volume of weapons exports between 2008 and 2012 rose 162% compared with the previous five-year period, with its share of the global arms trade rising from 2% to 5%, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

China replaces Britain in the top five arms-dealing countries between 2008 and 2012, a group dominated by the United States and Russia, which accounted for 30% and 26% of weapons exports, Sipri said.

"China is establishing itself as a significant arms supplier to a growing number of important recipient states," Paul Holtom, director of the Sipri Arms Transfers Programme, said in a statement.

The shift, outlined in Sipri's Trends in International Arms Transfers report, marks China's first time as a top-five arms exporter since the thinktank's 1986-1990 data period.

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