China Becomes Third Largest Arms Exporter

China is now the third-largest exporter of arms after Russia and the United States.  In 2014, China passed France and Germany as major exporters.

A fact sheet prepared by Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T. Wezeman at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March 2015 titled "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2014" summarizes the role of key arms exporters and contains a section on African arms imports. 

Defense Spending in Africa

The Economist  published on 22 November 2014 an article titled "Defence Spending: Arms and the African."  It draws heavily on a recent publication from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).  It also has a brief quote from me. 

China's Exports of Small Arms and Light Weapons

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published in October 2013 a policy paper titled "China's Exports of Small Arms and Light Weapons" by Mark Bromley, Mathieu Duchatel and Paul Holtom.  It notes that Africa accounted for the largest share of reported imports of Chinese military small arms and light weapons (SALW).  The report identifies in particular Chinese arms that have ended up in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Darfur in Sudan (page 16 of the report).  Some of the exports of Chinese SALW to Africa have involved European arms brokers.  While there are references to Africa throughout the report, pages 41 to 47 focus exclusively on Sub-Saharan Africa.

China Joins Top Five Conventional Arms Exporters

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released a report in March 2013 titled "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2012" that covers conventional arms transfers for the period 2008-2012.   It does not include small arms and light weapons.  During this period the United States remained the largest global exporter of major conventional weapons by dollar value, accounting for 30 percent of the total.  Russia was second with 26 percent, Germany third at 7 percent and France fourth at 6 percent.  China replaced the UK in fifth place with 5 percent of global transfers.

The volume of Chinese exports of major conventional weapons rose by 162 percent between 2003-2007 and 2008-2012 and China's share of the volume of international arms exports increased from 2 to 5 percent.  China is a major exporter of conventional weapons to Africa.  The largest African importers of weapons from various countries between 2008 and 2012 were South Africa, Uganda and Sudan.