Russian President Boris Yeltsin
concluded a three day state visit with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin in Beijing. The Associated Press
reported that, in addition to a new border treaty,
trade was touted as a key goal of the summit, with Mr.
Yeltsin hoping to increase annual trade to $20 billion
by the year 2000. A joint agreement signed at a summit
earlier in 1997 declared a commitment to create a
"multipolar world" where no single
country--referring to the United States--dominates.
The AP report noted that China's
purchases of Russian military hardware is a bright
spot on the trade front that according to Yeltsin
spokesman Sergei Yastrhembsky, "keeps our
military complex going."
The November issue of Jane's Intelligence
Review reports Russia's arms sales and
technological transfers to China are increasing
exponentially through official and unofficial
channels. The report follows Russian military
scientists that have been hired by China. While Moscow
also sells volumes of weapons to Latin America,
Cyprus, Iran and Syria, China is Russia's principal
customer.
The Jane's report cites that the
Russian firm Phazotron recently signed contracts to
provide China with between 150 and 200 Zhuk radars to
equip China's new F-81 fighter aircraft and the
advanced Chengdu J-10 (J-9) fighter, a classified
program. The Zhuk radars have six times the data and
signal processing power of the basic variant and a
detection range greater than 80 kilometers. The radars
can track while scanning on 24 targets and display up
to eight, and simultaneously provide fire-control
solutions for two to four of them.
"More recent reports," adds
Jane's, "indicate that China bought technical
documentation from the Russian Federation for an
aircraft-carrying cruiser... Deck-based Ka-28
helicopters, essential for a carrier strike group's
defense, have been sold." In addition,
"Along with Israel, Russia will jointly modify
their Il-76 cargo jet to produce an airborne early
warning platform for China." The absence of this
type of system has been widely reported as a drawback
to Chinese military capabilities for conducting
long-range air strikes.
"A Chinese Navy crew has recently
completed training in St. Petersburg, Russia on the
Type 636 'Kilo' class submarine," reports the
November 5 issue of Jane's Defense Weekly.
The new 'Kilo' is the third of four ordered from
Russia by Beijing. In addition, Moscow is upgrading
the technology for reducing the noise levels of the
older submarines in China's inventory.
China has put a satellite monitoring
station into operation on the strategic South Pacific
island of Tarawa in Kiribati the Christian
Science Monitor reported.
"United States military and
private security forces said the outpost is the first
satellite station built by China outside the
mainland", the report adds. "The location is
not only commercially useful, but militarily strategic
for an entire range of missions, ranging from
satellite control, data downlinks, data intercepts and
others," George Friedman, president of Strategic
Forecasting, told the Monitor. The
newsletter, Navy News and Undersea Technology,
reports that the Tarawa facility could be used to
track and monitor satellites, rocket launches from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and U.S. Navy
communications.
