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- The development comes months after Pakistan declared victory in a military standoff with India that saw Islamabad use China’s J-10Cs
- President Zardari was briefed on co-production of JF-17s with Pakistan as well as progress in J-20 5th-generation stealth fighter jets
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has become the “first” foreign leader to visit Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s (AVIC) Advanced Aircraft Complex in Chengdu, the presidency in Islamabad said on Sunday, with the Pakistani leader pledging deeper defense ties.
The AVIC is China’s flagship aerospace and defense conglomerate engaged in the design and production of a wide range of military and civilian aircraft, according to President Zardari’s office.
During the visit, the president toured the sprawling complex in its entirety, which produces the J-10C fighter jet that played a crucial role during the India-Pakistan military standoff in May.
Pakistan declared victory in the conflict, saying its air force used Chinese J-10C aircraft to shoot down six Indian fighter jets, including three French Rafales. Though Indian officials have acknowledged losses, they have not specified the number of jets downed by Pakistan.
“President Zardari was briefed on AVIC’s advanced capabilities, including the J-10 fighter jet, the co-production of the JF-17 Thunder with Pakistan, as well as progress in the J-20 stealth 5th-generation fighter aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, fully automated units, and integrated command-and-control systems for modern multi-domain operations,” his office said in a statement.
A rising military superpower, China hasn’t fought a major war in more than four decades but has raced under President Xi Jinping to modernize its armed forces, pouring resources into developing sophisticated weaponry and cutting-edge technologies. It has also extended that modernization drive to Pakistan, long hailed by Beijing as its “ironclad brother.”
Over the past five years, China has supplied 81 percent of Pakistan’s imported weapons, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Those exports include advanced fighter jets, missiles, radars and air-defense systems. Some Pakistan-made weapons have also been co-developed with Chinese firms or built with Chinese technology and expertise.
President Zardari, who was accompanied by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, met the AVIC’s engineers and scientists and listened to their insights on innovation, production and future technologies.
He noted that the J-10 and JF-17 aircraft have greatly strengthened the Pakistan Air Force, a fact clearly demonstrated during the May standoff, lauding the AVIC as a symbol of China’s technological advancement and of the enduring strategic partnership between Pakistan and China.
“President Zardari’s visit also marked a historic first, as no foreign head of state had previously visited the AVIC complex,” his office said. “He reaffirmed that the two countries would continue to expand collaboration in defense production and aviation, further deepening their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.”
Zardari arrived in Chengdu on Friday on a ten-day China visit, which comes on the heels of an official trip to China by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week, during which Islamabad signed investment agreements and joint ventures worth $8.5 billion with Beijing.
Later, President Zardari traveled via a high-speed train from Chengdu to Mianyang, the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in southwestern China, covering the 139-kilometer journey in around half an hour.
Officials briefed the president that China now operates the world’s largest high-speed rail network of over 45,000km of dedicated track, carrying more than 2 billion passengers annually. With trains running at up to 350-km an hour, the network links almost all major Chinese cities, with a standardized, dedicated passenger system that has become a model of modern connectivity.
“The President praised China’s achievements in sustainable and resilient transport, including pollution-free electric propulsion and earthquake early-warning technologies, describing them as a marvel of railway engineering,” Zardari’s office said. “He noted that such innovations offer valuable lessons for other countries including Pakistan.”