So Scramble.nl lists a fair number of J-7 units as withdrawn from use in 2021. Yet, even when those are discounted, and when the remaining units with J-7 are tallied and checked for some activity on Google Earth (All those bases still seem to be in use)
the remaining tally is this:
9 frontline brigades still use J-7
One additional brigade may still use it, but last GE imagery is from 2020, which is too old to be a proof.
And one training base unit uses J-7G to some extent.
The above list does not include various trainer JJ-7s that are still active.
Now I do believe not all J-7 units are actually populated up to their full strength of 30 or so planes. If they were, that'd be almost 300 J-7 planes left. But even with some units operating fewer planes, it seems plausible that at least 200 J-7 are still in active use.
Of course, it's also plausible that scramble.nl data is out of date. And that even when GE images show some J7 at some bases in 2022, that some of those bases are in fact not active units but more like storage facilities.
Coincidentally, J-8 numbers seem much lower. Scramble.nl lists a single PLANAF unit using them as fighters. And several recon units, both in PLANAF and PLAAF, still use them. So, even including recon variants, it seems likely that fewer than 75 airframes are still active.
Question: Does anyone have any recent data that would contradict the above?