Preface
Is it really that difficult to imitate American weapons?
For a long time, due to the strong manufacturing industry as a support, the imitation ability of the Continental Army industry is very strong, and many weapons can be imitated through "reverse engineering" even if we do not get the corresponding drawings.
However, more of the weapons and equipment we imitate come from Soviet-style weapons, while the number of American-style weapons copied by the mainland is very small.
So, what is the reason why the mainland can easily copy Soviet-style weapons, but it is difficult to imitate American-style equipment?
The mainland has limited access to American-style weapons
To imitate weapons and equipment, first of all, there are naturally enough ways to obtain weapons and equipment that allow us to take a look and take a look.
However, since the mainland fought a war with the Americans on the Korean battlefield after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the relationship between the mainland and the United States was naturally not very good for quite a long time.
In order to be able to contain and weaken the mainland's national defense strength, the United States will naturally restrict the mainland's access to American-style weapons through various means.
It was not until the 80s of the last century, as Sino-US relations entered the "honeymoon period," that the mainland really began to carry out military cooperation with the United States.
It's just that we had just reformed and opened up not long ago, and our overall economic strength and foreign exchange reserves were difficult to support our large-scale purchase of American-made equipment.
The "Black Hawk" helicopter purchased by the mainland from the United States at that time
Therefore, during this period, although the military cooperation between the mainland and the United States was close, there were not many actual military contracts between the two countries, and the number of US-made weapons obtained by the mainland was naturally not much.
The American-made C130 transport aircraft obtained by the mainland in the eighties of the last century
In stark contrast to American-made weapons, which are difficult to obtain, the mainland has many more ways to obtain weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union (Russia).
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union's various assistance to the mainland provided great help to the mainland's industrialization.
During this period, the mainland obtained a large number of weapons and equipment technology from the Soviet Union, such as the MiG-19 fighter at that time, which was the world's top fighter in the 50s of the last century.
MiG-19
However, due to the good relations between China and the Soviet Union, we not only obtained the production line of this type of fighter, but also obtained the corresponding production drawings, which made the mainland soon equipped with a large number of MiG-19 fighters, and based on this imitation of the J-6 aircraft.
6
Although military cooperation between China and the Soviet Union was terminated due to the deterioration of relations between the two countries.
However, although relations between China and the Soviet Union broke during this period, there were still certain good relations between China and other countries of the socialist camp in the world.
Romanian MiG-21 fighters
Therefore, from these countries, the mainland has also acquired Soviet-style weapons such as MiG-21 fighters and BMP1 infantry fighting vehicles.
BMP1 infantry fighting vehicle
Although we only had some prototypes at that time and did not have any corresponding drawings, with the continuous efforts of the Continental Army engineers, we successfully copied the J-7, Type 86 infantry fighting vehicles and other models of weapons from the Soviet-style weapons obtained from these countries.
Type 86 infantry fighting vehicle
By the end of the eighties of the last century, because the mainland was once again caught in the sanctions of Western countries, it was unable to obtain Western weapons and equipment.
At that time, the Soviet Union, because of the poor domestic economic situation, made the Soviet military industrial enterprises lack corresponding funds.
As a result, under the circumstance that "one wants to buy, the other wants to sell," the military cooperation between China and the Soviet Union began again, and the mainland also signed a large number of military cooperation treaties with the Soviet Union during this period.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic development of the former Soviet Union member states was greatly affected, so the finances of these countries needed a large amount of financial support.
Under such circumstances, the mainland naturally chooses more objects for military cooperation, and countries such as Russia and Ukraine have also sold those extremely advanced Soviet-style equipment to the mainland.
Due to the introduction of this period, the mainland generally buys the corresponding drawings or production lines at the same time as purchasing equipment, and sometimes even packages experts.
Therefore, during this period, the number of Soviet-style weapons copied by the mainland naturally increased substantially.
It can be said that the reason why the mainland can easily copy Soviet-style weapons instead of American-style weapons is to a large extent because we can obtain Soviet-style weapons through more channels.
In addition to the fact that there are many channels for obtaining Soviet-style weapons, the mainland's military equipment system has also made us mainly focus on the introduction of Soviet-style equipment.
The system of military equipment is different
As mentioned above, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the construction of the mainland's armed forces was, to a great extent, deeply influenced by the Soviet armed forces, so that the mainland was also on par with the Soviet armed forces in many aspects of weaponry.
The factories that the USSR helped build in China
Although there was a subsequent rupture between China and the Soviet Union, the mainland's weapons and equipment were largely similar to those of the Soviet army due to the mainland's weak weapons research and development capabilities at that time.
Due to the relatively large number of troops on the mainland, it will cost huge financial resources and a long time to change from Soviet-style weapons to other weapons, so the mainland is still relatively cautious in updating its weapons and equipment.
However, with the continuous development of the mainland's military equipment, to a large extent, the level of the mainland's weapons and equipment has reached or even surpassed that of the "old masters" of the past.
However, even so, it seems that the call for the mainland's weapons and equipment to be mainly imitated has never stopped......
Western smears
I don't know when it began, whether it was the domestic Internet or the Internet, there was a trend of finding a "father" for the mainland's weapons and equipment.
Like the famous J-10 fighter on the mainland, some netizens in Western countries believe that the mainland has "copied" Israel's "Cub Lion" fighter.
On the one hand, the J-20 is considered by some Russian netizens to have copied the MiG-1.44, and on the other hand, it is also considered by some Western media to have plagiarized the stealth technology of the F22.
J-20 and MiG-1.44
In addition to fighters, like the Continental's Type 99 tank, it is believed to have copied the Russian T72 tank.
What's more, some Westerners even filmed this "inexplicable" statement directly into the TV series.
In the third season of the American drama "Doomsday Lonely Ship" released in 2016, there was a plot in which the Americans directly controlled a warship on the mainland by relying on a small team.
And in the next plot, the members of the American team pressed the button directly in front of a group of Chinese characters, just like another of our warships launched missiles and destroyed our warships.
What, you ask why Americans can understand Chinese?
In this TV series, people directly slandered the mainland's 052D destroyer as a copy of the American "Arleigh Burke" destroyer, and even the button of the missile launch control device was exactly the same.
You must know that the development of large-scale horizontal ships is a very complex process, and even the same batch of ships leaving the factory will have differences in some subtleties.
Since the end of the 80s of the last century, the United States has imposed strict restrictions on weapons and equipment on the mainland, and under such circumstances, the American screenwriters can make the two types of destroyers exactly the same, which is really "against the sky"!
It can be said that from the plot of this American drama, you can see the arrogance of some people in Western countries.
But in fact, as the country with the largest manufacturing scale in the world today, China's weaponry level and research and development capabilities have long been among the top in the world.
For example, the "hypersonic missile" that the Americans have repeatedly failed to test-fire has been unveiled as early as the National Day parade in 2019, and it can be seen from this that the mainland has a lead over the United States in the field of "hypersonic missiles" for at least several years.
In addition to "hypersonic missiles," the mainland also has many weapons and equipment that are at the top level in the world, so it is hoped that some Chinese people can change the concept that China's weapons are all imitations.
epilogue
Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the workers of the Continental Army, the level of weapons and equipment and the research and development capability of the Chinese armed forces today are in fact in the forefront of the world.
Some Westerners' slander of China's technology and equipment is nothing more than a pitiful self-consolation.
Resources
China News Network: "Western Media Says China "Copycat" Foreign Military Equipment Experts Refute", December 28, 2015
Global Network: "Japanese Media: China's Equip Polyclonal from the United States and Russia Has Developed Terrible Weapons", March 9, 2016
Beiqing.com: "The U.S. media gave the highest evaluation to the J-20, but still falsely accused it of plagiarizing F22 and F35" July 13, 2021