Expert wrote that Russia had sold about 200 fourth-generation aircraft, several S-300 air defense batteries and about a dozen ships and submarines to China - in all worth more than $15 billion - in the last ten years. Last year alone, Russia's arms exports to China were worth about $2.3 billion, although most of the weaponry had been ordered in 2002-2003.
In 2004, though, the Chinese proposed lifting all restrictions on the delivery of military equipment and providing access for Chinese experts to secret Russian technologies. The Russian Defense Ministry ignored the proposals.
As a result, China froze even the concluded contracts. In particular, China ordered and paid for only 105 assembly sets for Su-27SK Flanker frontline fighters out of the original 200 to be built at a plant in Shenyang. Overall, 15 export contracts worth $3 billion were frozen.
Several contracts only resumed after the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao in July this year.
If Russia drastically improves the equipment sold to China and lifts the most rigid restrictions on transferring its expertise, its arms exports could increase from the current $2.3 billion to $3-4 billion per year, the paper wrote.
According to Konstantin Makiyenko, the deputy director of the Center for Strategic and Technological Analysis, a Moscow-based think tank, China wants to buy Russian-made AWACS planes, strategic bombers, a manufacturing license for the Su-30MK2 Flanker multirole fighter and its engines, and some other sensitive information.
The magazine said at the personal request of China's Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, Russia deployed Tu-95MS Bear and Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers and the A-50 Mainstay AWACS plane during the recent Peace Mission 2005 joint military exercise.
Although Russian General Staff officials said the aircraft had not been offered for sale, Chinese Premier Wen Jibao stated the sale would be "the first step to a new level of military cooperation."
