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It reminds me of a funny little anecdote. In 1989, the USA instituted an arms embargo on China after Tiananmen (which was itself performed with tanks outfitted with American-made guns). However, President Bush allowed a certain existing deal ("Peace Pearl") that would help modernize the PLA's airforce to continue based on the requests of certain well-connected military contractors.

But in 1990, China cancelled the deal unilaterally, despite it being the only access they had to Western military tech. Ultimately it went with Israeli and Russian sources. Why? The US arms exporters were running into massive cost overruns and development delays. China thought it was some kind of intentional sabotage, but it was nothing of the sort: it was just the general fucked-upness of American military procurement running into the realities of a culture unused to that level of fucked-upness.

An international arms embargo couldn't accomplish the disarmament of China of American weaponry, but the brokenness of the American arms industry could.



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