{"id":158078,"date":"2019-10-21T21:59:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T19:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=158078"},"modified":"2019-10-21T21:59:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T19:59:37","slug":"allegations-china-stole-f-35-design-to-make-j-20-fc-31-based-on-superficial-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=158078","title":{"rendered":"Allegations China Stole F-35 Design to Make J-20, FC-31 Based On Superficial Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China has long been accused of stealing US defense technology and its weaponry is derided as \u201ccopycats\u201d of US equivalents, but the allegation rarely extends beyond superficial supposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chengdu Aerospace Corporation\u2019s J-20 \u201cWeilong\u201d is China\u2019s answer to the United States\u2019 fifth-generation stealth aircraft, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. While the planes are comparable in many ways, their superficial similarity is often judged by defense commentators as proof that Chinese engineers\u00a0stole\u00a0the design from Lockheed Martin. As J-20s begin to fill squadrons in the People\u2019s Liberation Army and a generalized fear of Chinese firms as\u00a0dishonest\u00a0international players is increasingly propagated by Western powers, the\u00a0attacks\u00a0on the J-20\u2019s origins have only increased.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early last month, then-US National Security Adviser John Bolton put the issue in no uncertain terms, saying \u201cthe fifth-generation Chinese fighter aircraft looks a lot like the F-35, that\u2019s because it is the F-35. They just stole it.\u201d Bolton could be referring to the J-20 or to\u00a0Shenyang\u2019s FC-31, a testbed the PLA hasn\u2019t yet committed to adopting.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, the foreign policy publication\u00a0The National Interest\u00a0published a piece forwarding the idea once more, reviving a\u00a0Task & Purpose\u00a0article from August 2018 and calling it \u201can outrage,\u201d stating unequivocally the \u201ckey point\u201d was that \u201cBeijing has long stolen foreign technology and used it to reverse-engineer its own weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asia Times\u00a0then presented Bolton\u2019s comments, made at a press conference in Kiev, alongside the Task & Purpose observations, as a \u201creport,\u201d endowing them with a further air of legitimacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n