How is China shaping up in the global competition to sell air defence weapons?

Chinese defence systems have gone to multiple markets, with the HQ-9, a long-range surface-to-air missile that can reach up to 260km (162 miles), reportedly sold to Azerbaijan, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In a rare instance of a Chinese weapon footprint in Europe, Serbia is operating four batteries of the FK-3, an export variant of the HQ-22 medium-range air defence system.

Surface-to-air missile air defence systems are hard to make, requiring a domestic industrial base for high-frequency radars and advanced missile interceptors, allowing only a handful of countries to export these systems.