There were days in India when Chinese goods were considered cheap and looked down upon. Though China’s development is seen as a role model in some ways, its electronic and daily-use products are often believed by the Indian public to be of inferior quality. Yes, the lower the price, the greater the doubts about quality, though this is not always true.
However, time and again China is being associated with poor quality and unreliable weapons that it sells to different countries for use in wars.
Whether it is the weapons used by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, or the incidents involving Venezuela and the US-Iran strikes, Chinese systems are said to have shown weak performance.
This has led many to question whether China has been selling substandard or unproven weapons, especially since they were rarely tested in real wars until recent years.
China, the world’s third-largest arms exporter, is facing a loss of trust because its weapons often fail in real combat. Countries such as Pakistan, Venezuela and Iran, which use mostly Chinese equipment, have experienced poor results on the battlefield.
This has discouraged other buyers, especially in the Middle East, while the United States continues to lead in advanced military technologies like stealth and precision attacks.
Chinese weapons are produced mainly for export in large numbers and are not tested as strictly as American or Russian systems.
Many have design weaknesses; for example, some air-defence radars can be easily jammed or destroyed. These systems also do not work well together in layered defence. Maintenance is another problem, as spare parts are limited and users lack proper training.
In addition, Chinese technology is less capable of resisting electronic warfare and detecting modern stealth aircraft. Because of these issues, international confidence in Chinese arms is declining and several countries are looking for other suppliers.
