An FC-1 plane takes off at an airport in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province one day before the November 2012 Zhuhai airshow. Photo: CFP

The 50th Paris Air Show opened Monday, attracting worldwide aircraft producers including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which brought its FC-1 fighter plane models to the show.

 The showing of the FC-1 has been seen as an example of China's growing eagerness to sell defense equipment across the world.

 For a long time, China had little interest in selling arms to other countries, but things began to change in the 1970s, and now China is one of the top five countries in terms of share of the global arms market.

Rising sales

In March 2013, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released a report saying that China has replaced the UK as the world's fifth largest arms exporter, the first time China cracked the top five.

According to the report, the volume of Chinese exports of major conventional weapons rose by 162 percent in the five-year period from 2008 to 2012, compared with the four years from 2003 to 2007, and its share of total international arms exports increased from 2 to 5 percent.

The five largest suppliers of major conventional weapons from 2008 to 2012 were the US (30 percent of global arms exports), Russia (26 percent), Germany (7 percent), France (6 percent) and China (5 percent).

"China's rise has been driven primarily by large-scale arms acquisitions by Pakistan," Paul Holtom, director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Program, said in a press release posted on SIPRI website in March.

The FC-1, or Fighter China No.1, is considered to be well-suited for Pakistan, and was jointly developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.

According to a report by Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly in May this year, the FC-1 project was initiated in 1999 when India and Pakistan were locked in a tense situation.

At that time, Pakistan only had 353 fighters compared with India's 738. In 1998, many Western countries still had an embargo on arms sales to Pakistan. The Times newspaper reported that the then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf turned to China for help.

 The FC-1 had its maiden flight in August 2003, and delivery to the Pakistani air force began in 2007.

 On May 22 this year, when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Pakistan, six of Pakistan's FC-1 fighters escorted his special plane.

Not free any more

China didn't enter the lucrative arms market until 1979, when the central government started to approve arms exports and sales.

In January 1979, the central government decided to change its previous practice of giving away free military aid to other countries into a strategy that involved sales as well.

In the same month, then Vice Premier Wang Zhen held a defense meeting, and encouraged an increase in arms sales, partly with the aim of increasing the amount of foreign exchange reserves held by those manufacturers.

As China's military technology started to improve after the end of the Cold War, the arms industry changed its export model from focusing on cheap and low-end products to middle-end and high-end arms sales.

 For example, the industry built different levels of tanks - from the low-end WZ-120 to the more advanced MBT-3000 - targeting regions including the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, the Southern Weekly report said.

A report by China Aviation News in 2006 said that Pakistan had signed a contract to purchase eight FC-1s from China. In March 2009, Pakistan ordered 42 more FC-1s in a deal worth $1 billion, the largest ever arms deal for China. The deal was also a record for AVIC.

At the same time, China still has strict weapons-selling rules. Even State-owned enterprises must get approval from the regulatory agencies to obtain the business license.

"China has an extremely strict management system and policies, even stricter than global standards, and the Chinese government has always been cautious about weapons exports," Wu Jinhuai, a research fellow at China's Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times Tuesday. 

Fierce competition

Although the number of global conflicts is decreasing, arms sales are increasing. And the different aviation shows and defense exhibitions are a way for arms manufacturers to display their products.

In July 2010, two FC-1s from Pakistan were shown at the Farnborough aviation show in the UK, the first time these aircraft were displayed at a public show. Four months later, the FC-1 was displayed at an airshow in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

 However, the market is both intensely competitive and politically complicated.

 According to the Southern Weekly report, representatives from Bangladesh planned to buy the FC-1 at the Zhuhai airshow in 2008. But Russia managed to get the deal instead, selling them MiG-29 planes worth $13 million, and providing updated services costing $2 million per aircraft.

 In 2009, Egypt planned to buy 65 FC-1 planes, but the deal finally went to a US company that was selling second-hand F-16C/D aircraft.

 Meanwhile, AVIC is still confident about its FC-1 sales. In November 2011, Cheng Fubo, vice board chairman of Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Corporation, said that orders for the FC-1 had exceeded 100.

"China's weapons exports are in a development stage. Compared with other countries' products, China's weapons are cost-effective with a relatively low price," Wu from China's Arms Control and Disarmament Association told the Global Times Tuesday.

 In 2011, a report written by Ma Li, a member of the research center under AVIC, predicted that there will be global demand for 1,200 light fighter planes over the next 10 years, but this market will be dominated by the US and Russia.

According to a report by People's Daily in May this year, Russian arms exports in 2012 increased by 12 percent from the previous year to $15.2 billion, and Russia accounted for a quarter of global arms sales, with orders reaching $46.3 billion.

"However, a number of recent deals indicate that China is establishing itself as a significant arms supplier to a growing number of important recipient states," Holtom from the SIPRI Arms Transfers Program said in the press release.

Southern Weekly and Liang Jialing contributed to this story