China showcases its latest military hardware, and ambitions, at Zhuhai

By Gerry Doyle and Sophie Yu

The Chinese military hardware on display at the country's largest air show in Zhuhai illustrates its ambitions, and in some cases may show breakthroughs in capability, experts say.

Among the systems showcased were the latest variant of China's J-35A stealth fighter, its larger J-20 stealth fighter, a stealthy drone designated the CH-7 and the HQ-19 air defence system.

There was also an electronic warfare variant of the J-15 naval fighter, in addition to dozens of different munitions.

China is not "seeking to show off its power" at the air show, however, the state-controlled Global Times said in an editorial.

"Rather, it aims to prove that it has both the capability to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity and the commitment to peace-based development," it added.

The Aerospace CH UAV Co Ltd CH-7, which was first displayed at Zhuhai in 2018, is an intriguing aircraft since the latest version can be used for "different types of maritime missions", the Global Times said in a separate article.

The intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information a stealthy drone can provide is seen as crucial to modern warfare, particularly to direct the cruise and ballistic missiles that form a large chunk of China's arsenal.

"Theoretically such a platform could undertake maritime surveillance of U.S. Navy activities, including tracking their aircraft carriers, and potentially targeting them with indirect fires from IRBMs such as the DF-26," said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The aircraft also has implications for Taiwan, which China claims as its own, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei.

"On the radar it will look like a very small dot," said Shu Hsiao-Huang, a research fellow at Taiwanese defence thinktank INDSR. "It is set to pose a very big challenge to Taiwan’s air defence surveillance capacity."

On the ground, China showed off the YLC-2E radar and HQ-19 ballistic missile defence system, both designed to keep enemy threats out of the sky.

Few details are public of the radar system, only a model of which displayed at the air show. The Global Times says it tracks stealthy targets using S-band radio waves, a common set of frequencies and wavelengths used for everything from air traffic control radar to Wi-Fi.

The HQ-19's distinguishing feature is that it is designed to destroy both conventional ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles that can manoeuvre in flight. Little is known about the sensors directing the missiles or their ranges.

But the successes of missile defences elsewhere in the world make fielding such a system crucial to a modern military, experts say.

"The HQ-19 is a THAAD and the J-15 EW (electronic warfare variant) is a Growler, so both can be seen as keeping up with the U.S.," said Peter Layton, a defence and aviation expert at the Griffith Asia Institute, referring to the U.S. missile defence system and the EA-18G electronic warfare plane.

Layton added that a mockup of a two-seat AVIC J-20 on display also showed ambitions for a step forward, amid reports that it could be used to control combat uncrewed aerial vehicles.

On the commercial side of the air show, Brazilian planemaker Embraer said on Wednesday it planned to focus on strengthening its supply chain, including Chinese companies.

Embraer is the world's third-largest planemaker and focuses on up to 150-seat single-aisle regional and executive aircraft, sitting just below Airbus' and Boeing's best-selling A320 and 737 families and rivalling the Airbus A220.

At Zhuhai, Embraer's chief commercial officer, Martyn Holmes, said China's President Xi Jinping was would soon visit Brazil, where the G20 summit is to be held this month.

"I think it's an exciting moment for us to be having that (supply chain) conversation with Chinese suppliers and looking how we evolve," Holmes said.