The clearest picture of what China is offering Egypt during Xi Jinping's state visit this week is visible not at the meetings in central Cairo but at Egyptian airbases, where Chinese jet fighters, aerial tankers, radar planes and helicopters have been operating for the past 10 days.
The Egyptian and Chinese air forces are in the closing stages of Eagles of Civilisation 2026, their second such joint military exercise. Chinese aircraft arrived in Egypt on August 21 after flying more than 6,000km.
The Chinese contingent this year is bigger and more varied than in 2025. It is also, in effect, a rolling showroom of the aircraft Beijing hopes Egypt and other Middle Eastern buyers will consider.
“There is clearly a significant push from China, supported at head-of-state level, to replace Russia as Egypt's non-western air power supplier of choice,” said Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for air power at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Russia delivered 46 MiG-29M fighter jets to Cairo between 2017 and 2021. But Egypt abandoned a deal to buy up to two dozen Su-35S fighters, estimated to be worth $2 billion, in 2018.
Mr Bronk said Beijing probably sees an opportunity in Egypt's “dissatisfaction” with the Su-35S after comparative trials with its French-made Dassault-Rafales and US F-16s, and the constraints placed on Moscow's defence industry by the war in Ukraine.
So, what military aircraft does China produce and what can it offer Egypt?
J-16: The fighter that cannot be sold
Six Shenyang J-16 heavy multirole fighters were sent to Egypt for the joint exercises – the first time this type of aircraft has operated in Africa. They have been flying air combat drills against Egyptian Rafales and MiG-29s.
The J-16 is a 4.5-generation twin-engined strike fighter descended from the Russian Su-30, which is one reason it will almost certainly not feature in Egypt's air force. Strapped for cash, Russia in 1996 gave China licence to build the Su-30 domestically, but explicitly forbade sales of the fighter or derivative aircraft to third parties.
Mr Bronk added that the J-16 “is less likely to be exported than the J-10CE and/or J-35 because it is a central component of China's own frontline combat capabilities”.
Its presence in Egypt is, therefore, purely for demonstration.
J-10C: The fighter on offer
The J-10C is the medium-weight fighter that Chinese state media have been openly promoting for Egypt ahead of Mr Xi’s visit.
The J-10's origins are controversial.
Chinese engineers made key advances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with assistance from Israel Aerospace Industries, after Israel cancelled its US-inspired Lavi fighter programme under pressure from Washington. Much of that design work is widely assessed to have made its way into the J-10.
Its combat record was burnished in May 2025, when J-10Cs in Pakistan's air force were credited with shooting down Indian Rafales using Chinese PL-15 long-range missiles. Pakistan has received 36 of the aircraft, according to the Pentagon's 2025 China Military Power Report.
J-35: The stealth prize
The Shenyang J-35 is Beijing's newer twin-engined stealth fighter. Its resemblance to the American F-35 has been widely noted. US officials have publicly said Chinese cyber-espionage against Lockheed Martin's F-35 programme in the late 2000s contributed to the J-35's design.
The J-35 was not sent to Egypt for the joint exercises but the possibility of its sale hangs over Mr Xi's visit. Its purchase would make Egypt's air force the only one in the Arab world so far to enter the fifth-generation club.
The Pakistani government said last year that China had offered it up to 40 J-35s.
YU-20: Versatility proven by refuelling a Rafale
China's YU-20 is the aerial-refuelling variant of the Xian Y-20 strategic airlifter, itself a heavy transport whose resemblance to both the American C-17 and the Russian Il-76 has been noted since it first flew in 2013 and entered service in 2022.
One of the most striking moments of this year's exercise came on August 31, when a YU-20 tanker refuelled an Egyptian Rafale; an image that quickly spread on social media.
It is believed to be the first documented instance of a Chinese tanker refuelling a western-built fighter.
The refuelling of a French-built Rafale using a Nato-standard probe demonstrated cross-fleet compatibility. That interoperability is precisely what concerns western capitals, Mr Bronk said.
KJ-500: Big eye in the sky
Also featuring in this year's exercises is the KJ-500, which entered service in 2015 and now forms the backbone of Chinese airborne surveillance, with more than a dozen in service.
It is based on the Shaanxi Y-9 transport aircraft, whose lineage can be traced to Soviet-era designs developed through Chinese-Ukrainian co-operation, highlighting how Chinese military aviation continues to draw on Soviet architecture, even as its avionics approach western standards, according to the Middle East Institute.
Y-9LG: The jammer
Alongside the KJ-500, China has sent a Y-9LG airborne stand-off jammer, a dedicated electronic-warfare platform. The specific variant flown to Egypt has not been publicly identified.
Its presence at the exercise is significant. Electronic warfare aircraft are rarely deployed for foreign exercises, but several think tanks have noted China's growing willingness since 2024 to expose these sensitive platforms to allied training environments.
The Y-9LG’s capabilities are among the most closely guarded. Sending one to Egypt signals confidence and gives Egyptian operators a preview of Chinese jamming techniques in a live training environment.
HQ-9B: Already on the ground in Egypt
The one piece of Chinese hardware Egypt has actually bought and deployed is the HQ-9B long-range surface-to-air missile system. Egyptian officers have reportedly moved batteries into Sinai.
The HQ-9 family began its development in the 1980s. Western analysts have long assessed that Chinese engineers benefited substantially from studying Russia's S-300 missile system, widely used in Ukraine, sets of which Beijing acquired from Moscow in 1993. The HQ-9B is its most recent long-range variant, with an estimated range of up to 300km.
WJ-700: Already ordered?
The WJ-700 Falcon, a high-altitude, jet-powered platform developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation's Haiying Aviation subsidiary, has been considered for Egyptian service since late 2024.
Defence industry reports say Egypt signed a deal in June 2025 for 10 aircraft, worth about $400 million, with maritime surveillance in the Red Sea and suppression of enemy air defences among the reported roles.
Neither Cairo nor Beijing have confirmed the deal. If delivered, Egypt would become only the second foreign operator of the WJ-700 after Algeria.
It sits at the higher end of the drone market that Chinese firms have come to dominate across the region.
Egypt shown the full picture
What Egypt has been shown over the past 10 days is not simply a menu of Chinese military equipment but a complete, mutually integrated air-and-ground combat system.
The independent Swedish research institute Sipri said Egypt's arms imports fell 44 per cent in 2020-2024 compared with the previous five-year period, pushing the country from the world's third-largest importer to eighth.
China's share of Middle Eastern arms imports remains just above 1 per cent. An Egyptian decision to purchase what Beijing is offering would change that number drastically, but with steep consequences for Cairo.
“The J-10CE or J-35 being exported to Egypt would certainly increase the security concerns from Washington and Paris around adversary state access to F-16 and Rafale,” Mr Bronk said.
“It would almost certainly trigger Caatsa sanctions and jeopardise regular US military co-operation with the Egyptian Air Force and wider Egyptian Armed Forces.”
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, was the mechanism used to punish Turkey for buying the Russian S-400 missile system.
Whether Cairo, which has received more than $1 billion a year in US military aid for four decades, is prepared to make the political leap of buying into the Chinese system is a question Xi's visit has yet to answer.
