Bangladesh a new dump ground of Beijing’s defective military exports

Recent reports of Beijing’s supply of defective military hardware and components have made uproar in the political sphere of Bangladesh. According to various sources, Dhaka, which has long been a devoted purchaser of Chinese military equipments and hardware, has registered its dissatisfaction over faulty military hardware and equipments to both Political and Military leaders of China. 

As per the reports many of petrol vehicles and corvettes have been found equipped with spurious spare parts. Few of these vehicles collapsed during normal patrolling due to the malfunctioning of several spare parts. 

Bangladesh- A new victim 
This is not something new, as Dhaka has long been accused Beijing of supplying low quality military equipments and hardware. As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), just three countries, i.e. Algeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan received 60% of China’s total military exports during the period 2016-2020. 

Among 40 MBT2000 (Main Battle Tanks) procured from the Chinese State-owned Company NORINCO, Bangladesh faces issues with more than half of these tanks. China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO) not only failed to provide spare parts but was also accused by the Bangladeshi authorities of poor after-sales services. 

Likewise, K-8W aircraft has become a liability for the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) since their delivery in 2020. BAF lost two of his soldiers recently in crashes of K-8W. Similar technical issues were also reported by the BAF regarding Chinese-made F-7 fighter aircraft. 

Since 2020, two Chinese 053H3 Frigates named BNS Abu Ubaidah and BNS Umar Farooq are standing deserted on the banks of Mongla Port due to multiple technical failures. Several reports highlighted that basic equipments like radar, and gun system failed to operate.

In few cases, Beijing not only sold faulty military crafts and equipments to Bangladesh army but even exported outdated equipments on high rates. In such a similar case, Dhaka received two outdated 035G Ming-Class submarines from Beijing at the coast of over US$ 100 million each. 

Bangladesh- Not the only victim

Bangladesh is not the only victim of Beijing’s unprofessional conduct in the export of arms and equipments. Even it’s all weather ally—Pakistan has also accused Beijing of providing faulty equipments. From faulty imaging device in FM90 (N) missile system to technical issues with F-22P frigates, Beijing has long been accused by the Pakistan authorities of providing low quality military equipments. 

Apart of it, SR 60 RADARs, ASO-94 Sonar system have also been found faulty and became a headache for cash ridden Islamabad who has a history of sour relations with its surrounding countries like Afghanistan, India and Iran. 

Several reports of crash of Chengdu J-10 have been reported from time to time. Similarly, since its induction into Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in 2007, several JF-17A have succumbed due to malfunctioning of various hardware and faulty equipments resulting in the causalities of a number of PAF soldiers.

Dozens of Kenyan soldiers have lost their lives owing to low quality and faulty VN-4 armoured personnel carriers exported by Chinese manufacturers. In 2016, sales representatives of NORINCO VN-4 refused to board their own VN-4 armoured personnel carrier during test firing. Promised to stand against any landmine or IED attack, these armoured personnel carriers succumbed to rocket propelled grenades. 

Even the Chinese made UAVs are no exceptions. Algeria, Iraq, Jordan are few of the buyers who in past few years have continuously complained about the technical issues in Chinese CH-4B UAVs. Iraq alone lost dozens of its newly procured CH-4Bs during test drives.

As per the report published in SCMP in 2016, C-705 antiship missiles procured by Indonesian Navy failed to hit the target during a series of tests. All Chinese made MA60 and Y-12E are lying deserted on the Nepalese airstrips due to high operating costs and low performance. 

Tatmadaw has long been critic of export of low quality Chinese military equipments to Myanmar and has raised these issues with Beijing both on the political and military level. Radio Free Asia in January reported that seven JF-17s were forced to be grounded citing ‘cracks in their airframes and other maintenance issues’. Likewise, uncontrolled F-7 crashes have been the real issue for the Nigerian Air Force.  

Similar complaints of technical issues and cheap or spurious hardwares in equipments procured from a Chinese company have been raised by Algeria, North Korea, Venezuela, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Laos, Cambodia and other nations. 

Why these countries prefer Chinese equipments?        

Cost effectiveness remains the major reason behind countries dependency on the Chinese manufacturers. Most of the buyers of Chinese equipments are from the third world. These African, Latin American and South Asian nations find it difficult or even impossible to procure better but costly western weapons and military equipments.

Secondly, few of these countries are either anti-West or still decline to deal with western powers and Beijing remains the most attractive source of military procurement for these nations. 

Another reason is transparency. While, USA and other western power desire transparency in defence deals with the signatory, Beijing requires no such demands, paving a way to corruption onto these military deals. This the reason, why most of the dictators and most corrupted governments prefer to engage with Beijing in the defence deals. 

Apart of it Chinese SMEs do not shy away from selling their products to non-State Forces. On contrast they openly export their weapons in civil torn countries by selling their weapons to the non-State players and rebel groups further fuelling the internal wars and conflicts. Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan, and others remain the victims of the greed of these irresponsible Chinese companies.    
   
Time to wake up!

Poor quality, issues with maintenance services, use of spurious hardware and body parts, failure in suitable after-sales support, lack of training and trained personnel, difficulties in providing spare parts, shortage of technical expertise and compatibility, lack of transparency and accountability in defence contracts, failure to provide smooth repair and maintenance needs are few of the reasons why these countries should stop buying Chinese equipments blindly. 

As per the SIPRI, Chinese exports have showed a dip in overall value of arm sales during the period of 2018-2022 as compare to what it earned in the period between 2013-17.

What these poor countries fail to understand is that maintenance and repair of these faulty Chinese equipments cost them twice to thrice of the actual amount spent on the procurement. With rising military exports of countries like Bulgaria, India, Slovakia, South Korea and others, the third world should turn their faces away from Beijing and instead explore the more reliable and coast effective markets among them.

These countries should wake-up and need to value the lives of very soldiers, who are being killed, not in combat or war but, due to cheap, faulty and low-effective Chinese equipments.