China has become the world's No. 3 arms exporter, new report says

China has jumped from the world's ninth-largest arms exporter to third place, kicking Germany out of the No. 3 spot but still falling far behind the U.S. and Russia, Sweden's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a report on Monday. China's arms exports rose 143 between the 2005 to 2009 period and the most recent period studied, 2010 to 2014, SIPRI said, though China only accounts for 5 percent of global exports.

The U.S. had 31 percent of exports in the 2010-14 period and Russia had 27 percent. While U.S. and Russian exports increased, Germany and France sold fewer weapons in the period. China's main customers in the past five years were Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, SIPRI said, though it also sold arms to 18 African nations, Venezuela, and Indonesia.

"Most countries don't prefer Chinese weapon systems, but China is basically a supplier of last resort," Richard Bitzinger at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies tells The New York Times. "It sells reasonably good equipment to countries that don't have a lot of money but want something."

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