While China may be willing to crackdown on some intellectual property violations more heavily in light of the presidential summit, AsiaPundit does not expect it to allow a patent inspection on these babies:

A Chinese media report from last week indicates the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) now has at hand locally manufactured air defense missiles based on American Patriot missile technology, most likely used in the Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) system. The technology was reportedly provided to the Chinese by Israel during the 1990’s.

The Patriot-like missiles were recently tested in north-west China with successful results, knocking down a reconaissance plane and a missile. According to the Donga Ilbo, the officer who led the tests commented, “This marks the official launch of the interceptor missile unit. We can intercept not only high-flying reconnaissance planes or missiles but also low-flying targets. Our accuracy is significantly high as well.”

Patriot missiles were deployed to Israel during the 1991 Gulf War to defend Israel from Iraqi missiles. At the time, Israel promised the United States not to transfer the technology to a third party. Reports from the early 1990’s suggest that the promise was not kept, and the PAC-2 technology became one of several missile technologies the Israelis sold to the Chinese.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), China isn’t just manufacturing missiles based on the Patriot technology, but also using it to develop countermeasures against American Patriot systems. If that is true, that may prove to be a problem for the US and its Asian allies, particularly Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

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