Sure, Chinese military tech is crap... now. I suggest one recall the old Rat Pack movies in the 1950s, in which cheap Japanese cameras are often joked about. Later, it seemed the success of the Honda Civic only meant that Americans would buy tiny, el cheapo cars. Neither were taken seriously. Fast foward and, oops!
Here is
Harvard Business School's 1975 seminal study that links profitability to market share, something the Japanese and now Chinese know well (as it is more applicable to manufacturing than to services). Get the volume and cash flow. Invest. Move up one rung in sophistication, from low end to eventually high end of market (Civic to Lexus transition). By the time anyone notices and stops guffawing at the "hapless orientals," they own your markets!
Just think: military R&D places a huge chunk of fixed cost at the beginning of a new system. Only by producing many units, at a lower variable cost, can that investment be spread out, or you get $10 billion airplanes. Now take the next logical step and ask yourself what happens if and when military plane sales are lost to cheaper but effective Chinese equipment....
Work it out. Study recent industrial history. Apply it to today. Guaranteed to erase smirks.
