Riyadh
Saudi Arabia has refused to buy a J-35 stealth fighter jet, giving a big blow to China’s middle east strategy. This is a big shock for Xi Jinping. Because according to the strategy of Xi Jinping, Chinese weapons were to replace American weapons in powerful countries of the Gulf. Xi Jinping wanted that if a powerful country like Saudi Arabia buys a J-35 stealth fighter, it will not only increase the sale of Chinese jets, but can also close the doors for American weapons strategically in the Middle East. But according to IDRW report, Saudi Arabia has given a shock to China when the G20 summit was held in November last year and Chinese officials were celebrating Jhohai Air Show’s success.
China repeatedly claimed that Saudi Arabia was about to buy Chinese stealth fighter jet. But the G20 summit has opened a new chapter of a story. The new report states that Saudi Arabia is now working closely with Britain, Italy and Japan to manufacture the sixth generation fighter aircraft and the talks between these countries have reached the advance level. It is believed that by the end of this year, the deal will be confirmed. During this time the outline of the project will be decided.
Saudi gave a big shock to China
For China, this is a shocking shock under the feet. His strategy in the Middle East was to weaken the dominance of Western countries. Apart from this, he is looking for a large market for the J-35 Stealth Fighter. So far, only Pakistan has been prepared to buy the J-35 stealth fighter. Experts have been continuously questioning the capacity of the J-35 stealth fighter. Many reports have said that Pakistan has also agreed to buy this fighter due to Chinese pressure. But Saudi Arabia had no such problem. After the refusal of Saudi Arabia, many more countries, with which China was talking about the sale of the J-35 stealth fighter, can retreat from the deal. The clouds of doubt have now become deeper on its technology.
According to IDRW report, Saudi Arabia has not taken this decision suddenly. Rather, despite having a close relationship with China, Beijing’s mentality has been cautious. It has adopted a balanced attitude towards Chinese military hardware. He has definitely bought some Chinese weapons, but has not yet bought strategic weapons. Therefore, experts are only looking at it from the perspective of diversity in Saudi Arabia’s weapon purchase. IDRW has said in its report that officials of Saudi Arabia and Western countries are already talking on this new project at a confidential level. There is high technology for fighter jet construction between Western countries, indicating long -term strategy between Saudi and Western countries.
J-35 fighter aircraft not getting buyers?
Apart from Pakistan, no other country has shown interest in the J-35 fighter aircraft yet. Although Chinese fighter jet is much cheaper than American fighter jets such as F-35 and its maintenance is also less expensive, but it has failed to make an impact. China sent FC-31 for performance during the global aircraft held in Saudi Arabia in February 2024. The FC-31 fighter aircraft is the former variant of the J-35. But FC-31 also could not affect defense experts.
China’s defense industry has made great progress and has met the country’s defense needs. But despite this, China has to struggle to search for foreign customers. China had high expectations from the Middle East, but there is no success there. Apart from these things, 77% of China’s weapons components were imported from Russia from 2019 to 2023. At the same time, China was also dependent on France and Russia for many critical weapons, so this dependence questions China’s self -sufficiency and technical skills claims.