Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s rare visit to the Chengdu aircraft production facility of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) on September 14 marks a symbolic deepening of the China–Pakistan defence partnership at a time when South Asia’s airpower equation is undergoing rapid change. Zardari became the first foreign head of state to be granted access to AVIC’s most sensitive military aviation complex – home of the J-10C and J-20 stealth fighters – underscoring the privileged status of Islamabad in Beijing’s strategic calculus.

The optics of the visit are significant. Pakistan is today almost entirely dependent on China for its advanced military hardware, with 81% of its imports sourced from Beijing between 2020 and 2024, according to SIPRI data. The Pakistan Air Force

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