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The Russians claimed that the POF’s RPG-7P anti-tank rockets, 122-mm D-30 howitzer ammunition and PK-10 assault guns were 100-percent imitations of Russian systems. The PK-10 assault gun is a Pakistani version of the Russian Kalashnikov, or AK-47, the Russians pointed out. As for the other two weapons, even the names remain the same.
This seemed odd, as Pakistan has no history or culture of imitating foreign weapons. Following this press conference however, a visit to the Pakistan exhibit revealed that the PK-10 assault gun had been removed from the display.
The Russian Rosoboronexport delegation said that, as 2009 is the 90th birthday of the AK-47, Russia is paying special attention to protecting its intellectual property rights with regard to the assault rifle. For this purpose, Russia has signed agreements with China and Turkey on the protection of intellectual property rights of Russian weapons.
What is surprising is that the Russians did not know that the Pakistani Army had been employing PK-10 assault guns extensively. Ground forces in major cities like Islamabad and Karachi are all armed with PK-10 assault guns.
The Pakistanis explained that the PK-10 assault gun, D-30 howitzer projectile and RPG-7 anti-tank rocket were all manufactured by Pakistan under authorization from the People’s Republic of China, which had provided a license certificate.
“We received technical assistance cooperation from China in the earlier years, and all production activities were in accordance with the agreement between the two sides. Later, we upgraded the PK-10 and RPG-7P. We do not think that these weapons violate the intellectual property rights of any other country, as we have paid royalties to China for the production license,” a member of the Pakistani staff said.
As it turns out, the former Soviet Union did give China permission to produce AK-47s under license. As for the RPG-7 and D-30 howitzer projectiles, no record has surfaced to suggest that the production technology was ever officially transferred to China.
As is widely known, production of the above three types of weapons began in China many years ago, and they have been exported to several countries. The AK-47, RPG-7 and D-30 are called respectively the Type 56 assault gun, T69 and 69-1 anti-tank rockets and D30/D30-2/D30-3 howitzer projectiles. The latter have appeared in drills of PLA airborne troops.
Soviet forces started to deploy the RPG-7 in large batches in 1961. By this time, China-Soviet relations had already soured. In China, the Type 69 anti-tank rocket was put into batch production in 1969 when China-Soviet relations were at their worst.
The Soviet Union started to develop the D-30 around the end of the 1960s; the key producer of the projectiles was the well-known Ekaterinburg No. 9 Factory. In an interview in the city of Niznitagil, a technical expert from this factory said that it had no record of the official transfer of the D-30 to China.
As for China, the military enterprises involved refused to respond to questions on this issue, saying the matter was “confidential.”
How could China have obtained the RPG-7 when the China-Soviet relationship was at its worst? This question remains unanswered.
After 1968, Vietnam and North Korea were the only socialist countries close to China that had acquired a large number of RPG-7s from the Soviet Union. North Korea was unlikely to provide China with Soviet weapons, since during the years of the Cultural Revolution in China, China-North Korea relations deteriorated dramatically. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung believed that the Cultural Revolution was not socialism.
Also, North Korea had a long tradition of protecting its relations with both sides by refusing to share Soviet weapons with China or Chinese weapons with the Soviets, which would allow the two communist enemies to dissect and analyze each other’s weapon systems.
The situation was the same in Vietnam. Beginning in 1965, both the Soviet Union and China were supplying equipment to the Vietnamese military. Hanoi promised each country it would not reveal its military secrets to the other. However, historical records show that from 1967 China and the Soviet Union began to accuse each other of failing to give full support to Vietnam.
Around 1965, though Sino-Soviet relations were dramatically worsening, the two countries reached an agreement on working together to support the Vietnamese in fighting the United States. To ensure that Soviet weapons would be quickly and safely transported to the Vietnamese front, the equipment was to be transported to North Vietnam by rail from China.
Beginning in 1967, the Soviet Union began to accuse China of purposefully delaying the weapons deliveries and even of stealing Soviet weapons intended for Vietnam. China called the allegations fabricated. It is highly likely that China obtained the Soviet-made RPG-7 anti-tank rockets during this time, when the Soviet Union used the Chinese railroad to transport light-duty weapons to Vietnam.
As for the D-30, it first made its appearance in China in the early 1980s and China has introduced upgraded versions called the D30-2 and D30-3. There are several possible channels through which China could have obtained the D-30. Countries like Egypt, for example, were equipped with the Soviet-made D-30.
In 1973, when Egypt-Soviet relations took a deep dive, the Soviet Union withdrew all its military advisors from Egypt and stopped providing the country with parts for its weapon systems. China later provided different types of military aid to Egypt, and in turn acquired a large number of sample Soviet weapons that had been deployed by the Egyptian military, including the BMP-1 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles, and the MiG-23 fighter aircraft.
Chinese imitations of the SAM-7, called the HY-5 and HY-5A, have been exported to Pakistan and a number of other countries. China has even transferred the “intellectual property rights” of some of these systems to Pakistan. The Pakistani version of the HY-5A is called the Anza Mk-1. There are numerous similar cases in other countries also.
Since China’s imitations of these Russian weapons took place at a time when Sino-Soviet relations were highly abnormal, it may be impossible to hold anyone accountable for these unauthorized weapons transfers and imitations.
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(Andrei Chang is editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly, registered in Toronto, Canada.)
