November
8, 2006: While Russia has been a major supplier of modern weapons to China,
especially since the end of the Cold War in 1991, another crucial, if not
major, source has been Ukraine. China buys about $100 million worth of weapons
from Ukraine each year, less than five percent of what it gets from Russia. But
Ukraine supplies some vital technologies. That's because of the way the Soviet
Union was dissolved. To keep things simple, when the Soviet Union was broken up
into 14 countries, state owned facilities belonged to whatever new country they
found themselves in. The Soviet Union spread defense plants around, and a
number of vital ones ended up in Ukraine. So China buys Ukrainian jet engines,
and power plants for its warships. Many spare parts for China's growing fleet
of Su-27/30 warplanes also come from Ukraine. Russia also produces many of
these items, but Ukraine is often the low bidder. Ukraine has also sold
manufacturing technology to China, so that the Chinese can make their own
weapons components.
In
the last few years, however, Ukraine has become a less important supplier for
China. That's because the election of a reform government in early 2005 removed
a corrupt crew that was willing to sell China anything, especially if the right
people got bribes. The reform government not only made those deals more
difficult, but also wants Ukraine to join NATO. That will mean many
restrictions on what weapons Ukraine can sell to China. So, for the moment, the
Chinese are getting all the Ukrainian goodies they can.
