There has been a certain unrest on the social networks, after appearance of the publication, issued by American issue "The National Interest", whose author claims, that China was able to achieve its military power due to industrial espionage, "well established habit of stealing military technology from Russia and USA". The author lists 5 examples of the military hardware, which Chinese stole from Russia and USA.

The first on the list is the Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter, production documents of which was given by the USSR to the "Empire of the Center" in hope to restore damaged relations with its neighbor. China has created its J-7 fighter version, based on Soviet documentation. 

The second listed example is Russian Su-27 multi-role fighter, production documentation of which was sold to China in the early 1990´s, when Russian industrial military complex was in desperate need of finances and potential customers for its military hardware. However, Chinese manufacturers have broken their agreements and created their own J-11 version, with Chinese avionics and electronic systems.

The remaining three examples listed in the article are all US made military hardware pieces, among them F-35 multirole fighter, which was turned into J-31. According to the author´s opinion, China has succeeded in industrial espionage so much, that it has surpassed Russia in the military hardware development, and is breathing on USA´s neck. The author predicts, that very soon China will be forced to protect itself from military intelligence services of other nations.

Thus, we have approached Russian expert in the field of military, director of the Center of strategy and technology analysis, member of the Public advisory board in ministry of defense, acting director of Russian military producers, Ruslan PUKHOV (Руслан Пухов). "I think, that this apocalyptic image, drawn by Americans, will acquire different, more positive background, if we admit that: people steal only from the leaders. The loosers are not attractive for them. So what does such theft mean - it is just acknowledgment - that we are leader in the field of military industry. Furthermore, if we keep up with our sincerity, in their time USA didn´t have enough interesting technology, and they "acquired" many of their patents in Europe. Of course, imperial Russia at the beginning, Soviet afterwards - have also been "learning" from others, in the field of military technologies.

Moreover, China has not been stealing only from Russia and USA, it has been collecting small breadcrumbs around the world. For example from French: anti-aircraft system "Crotale" and Dutch short-range autonomous weapon system "Goalkeeper". It would be misleading to think, that Chinese were stealing from us and Americans exclusively - they were stealing wherever they could.  Next - Chinese have been keen to share their own technology, unlike us, possibly due to their low self-confidence in these fields of equipment. To be more precise, Chinese have offered us their unlicensed copy of French Thales thermal imaging cameras "Catherine-FC", which has been installed on our T-90 tanks. We have knock-down kit assembly of this French system in Vologda (450 km from Moscow, northwest Russia), however, after the introduction of EU sanctions against us, we experienced problems. Domestic development of such equipment was not finished yet. Thus Chinese have approached us several times, with proposal of their "stolen" version of "Catherine-FC", that works fine (while Chinese can´t be accused of direct stealing, since it is "only" unlicensed copy, manufactured by bypassing French patents). However, not taking into account the EU sanctions, we try to play according to the European rules. Even if we could bypass them, and buy analogical system, not worse than French, Chinese copy of their original and even cheaper. Why not? Because everyone is allowed to advocate its national interests in any possible way. Moreover, keep in mind, that Chinese don´t simply steal, they either copy it or they create some hybrid system: something that they have stolen, combined with their own improvements. Thus, the 5^th generation fighter, quoted by American experts, is not simply stolen design, since it is the case of abovementioned hybrid. While Chinese would not be able to steal whole package of technical documentation of any military product. They steal only parts. Therefore, J-31 is hybrid, based partially on Russian, partially on Israeli and American designs and developments, blended together with Chinese supervision.

In any case, it is progress, and all those complains about who is stealing from who, are just groundless. Go ahead, steal something and then copy it! It is not so simple. Even us, and Americans used this approach in our times, and stolen each other´s technology, but were unable to produce them. For example, in the 1970´s, our industry and science was on such low level, and we were behind so much, that even if we stole some equipment or system, we could only assemble and disassemble it, and nothing else. Thus, military industrial espionage is not magic elixir. Some of experts say - now we will task our intelligence service with stealing of modern system and they will steal it - don´t believe them. This was possible in the 1950´s and 1960´s, to steal AK-47, assemble and disassemble it and start domestic serial production. Current technology is such advanced, that we have problems to assemble and disassemble, not to even speak about copying it. It has become too difficult now.

Olga BOZHEVA

* translated from Russian original, www.MK.ru