China is the world’s largest arms exporter, after the US and Russia. At the same, Chinese arms producers are still in pursuit of their niche in the global market.

The Chinese newspaper The People’s Daily recently published an article about possible buyers of Chinese-made weapons, particularly the new FC-20 jet fighter.

"Among the potential buyers are developing nations which have no military ties with the West," the article read. Those regions are Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

At the same time, the US considers arms exports as a "diplomatic indicator" distinguishing friends and foes, the newspaper noted.

On the contrary, China is free from political prejudices in its arms trading.

Chinese-made weapons are high in demand due to their low price tags and high quality, close to their Western analogues.

The J-15 jet fighter was a copy of the Russian-made Su-33 aircraft, while the J-31 was based on the American F-35B. And there are many more of such examples. The Chinese defense industry has been copying many types of military hardware, including tanks, artillery, combat vehicles, guns etc.

Beijing is not concerned with the place in the market China is currently holding. This month, the government has announced two major initiatives on the issue.

First, the Chinese defense industry is going private, but of course, in the Chinese sense of the term. The industry is strictly controlled by the government, and any company employing over 50 employees is supervised by a party official.

Second, China is set to create a defense research agency (an analogue to the US DARPA), Popular Science reported. Unlike the US agency, the Chinese agency will supervise the industry.

The agency will run research programs, promote innovation and integrate them with the Chinese Armed Forces.

The possible scenario is that the bulk of Chinese defense research would be done by state-owned companies, not by private firms.

Currently, there are some 1,000 private defense companies operating in China, 127 percent more than in 2010. They are controlled by the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND). This year, SASTIND will intensify efforts to build up Chinese arms exports and develop an export-oriented defense industry.