Zhuhai Airshow concludes with China's impressive military equipment

China

Zhuhai Airshow concludes with China's impressive military equipment

2024-11-17 20:14 Last Updated At：22:17

The 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition held in south China's coastal city of Zhuhai closed on Sunday with an impressive, comprehensive and successful display of People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s advancements in military equipment.

The biennial event, also known as Airshow China or Zhuhai Airshow, is China's largest arms show and is seen as one of the world's most important defense exhibitions.

The six-day event attracted attendance of 1,022 companies from 47 countries and regions, and the number of participating companies increased by more than 38 percent over the previous version, among which the number of overseas exhibitors increased by 104 percent.

The cumulative number of visitors reached nearly 600,000, and the contract value reached 285.6 billion yuan (about 40 billion U.S. dollars).

During the airshow, a dazzling array of aircraft, such as China's fighter jets of J-20 and J-35A, Russia's fighter jet of Su-57, staged more than 70 flight demonstrations.

Among the debuts of high-end military equipment and exhibits, China's new stealth fighter jet J-35A, carrier-borne fighter J-15T, HQ-19 surface-to-air missile weapon system, and lunar soil samples from the far side of the moon attracted the most attention of global visitors. "This time, the PLA Air Force exhibited 36 new types of weapons and equipment, which is very exciting. Our aviation equipment has shown full-blown development, and two types of stealth fighters have been publicly unveiled. Our air defense and anti-missile equipment has also made great progress. For example, this year our HQ-19 surface-to-air missile weapon system was publicly unveiled for the first time. Its equipment can greatly improve our air defense and anti-missile capabilities, weave a tight air defense network for the country, and become a more powerful air defense iron fist," said military expert Zhang Xuefeng. Visitors said that successive airshows have gradually demonstrated the continuously improving system combat capabilities of the Air Force, especially the mass deployment of batches of advanced equipment, and the accelerated forging of new combat capabilities represented by unmanned combat and special forces. "I saw the huge Y-20 transport aircraft and the advanced J-20 stealth fighter jet. They are very spectacular and I felt very proud. I also want to be a pilot and fly the most advanced aircraft to defend the motherland," said child visitor Gao Muchen. The static ground exhibition area set four sections of air control operations and air strikes, unmanned and anti-unmanned operations, strategic delivery and airdrops, and early warning detection and air defense.

"The four sections displayed this time present a trend of informatization, systematization and autonomy, and also show our characteristics of stealth, long-range and intelligence. It can be said that it represents a trend of the future development of our air force equipment," said Zhang.

Global partnership launched in Beijing to fight poverty, promote development

The Global Partnership for Poverty Alleviation and Development (GPPAD) was officially launched on Wednesday at the ongoing 2026 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing, according to an announcement made at the event.

Jointly initiated by China, 53 other countries, and nine international organizations, the GPPAD marks a milestone in global poverty-reduction efforts, the announcement said.

While encouraging members to pursue poverty-reduction and development strategies suited to their own conditions, the GPPAD will promote exchanges of experience in poverty reduction and governance, and jointly explore pathways to eradicate poverty at its roots, according to the announcement.

The partnership welcomes the participation of governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia and media institutions, to foster a fair, inclusive, non-discriminatory and sustainable development environment together, the announcement added.

Speaking at the forum, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said that China will support the GPPAD in strengthening policy dialogue, technical demonstrations and talent training, to help developing countries build stronger poverty-reduction capacity.

Scholars and government officials hailed the importance of this global effort in reducing poverty.

"Today, you have the opportunity of countries coming together to say, in a way we failed, but we don't have to. We can work together through partnership to address issues that collectively as a globe, we said we would do eight years ago, whatever it is, 10 years ago, but have not done so. So it's importance is this opportunity, this celebration of working together, we can really achieve things," said Robert Walker, Professor of the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Beijing Normal University, who is also an Emeritus Fellow at Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford.

"Within this platform, we will have access to more knowledge, partnerships, and economic and social cooperation, allowing us to learn from the experience of China and other countries, so that we can accelerate the pace and make the commitment. The problem of poverty is a global problem for humanity, so the strategies for reducing it must also be global strategies, concerted strategies, that allow, first, to end hunger, drastically reducing the level of poverty by 2030," said Salimo Ismael Vala, Minister of Planning and Development of Mozambique.