Stealth fighters and a massive mothership drone: The high-tech weapons China unveiled at its largest airshow

China showed off its rapidly advancing military technology by unveiling a string of cutting-edge hardware at the country’s largest airshow last week. The biennial event in the southern city of Zhuhai has become a rare public window into the military and industrial might of the rising communist-controlled superpower, while also providing international experts with an opportunity to assess its capabilities.

Many of the new Chinese weapons are seen by experts as having been developed to match the United States, as authoritarian Beijing pushes to modernize its armed forces and assert its growing military presence in Asia.

This year’s event featured a range of new weapons systems, including fighter jets and missiles. It also for the first time featured a dedicated area for drones, in a sign of their increasingly critical role on battlefields, including in the Ukraine war – and any potential future conflict over the self-governing island of Taiwan.

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