Re: J-20... The New Generation Fighter
No, I am not saying that, trust me.
What I am saying is, I felt its a little premature to show off the piece.
Allow me elaborate. When I look at design, I look at the lineage, and when you look at lineage, you look at the most variants a design can offer - And currently J-10/J-11B seems still fresh off the production/under production line, with almost no variants to speak of. The last fighter that seems to me to be very well understood by the Chinese aviation industry seems to be the J-7 and J-8, with almost hundreds of variations. It shows the level of confidence and understanding in modifying the design because of the thorough understanding and knowledge gain in those design.
Just imagine if you design something, let's say a car, and because its a new design, you are just happy it "works" (magic!) and is afraid modifying it will result in failure - and that's normal in almost every field of engineering/design process. And it took a long time until designers thoroughly understood the principles of the design, that they start really tearing it apart again, examine every parts and redesign every part to have next generation design. Along the way, you have hundreds of modification/variation of original design. And this usually starts from the outside - the shell of the design - the body/structure frame of the design. So the car usually get a different look first, while the engines and the innards get change much much later.
People in the West are always China bashing. When China is being secretive, they label them a threat to their national security and interest. When they are open about it, they still label them a threat to their national security and national interest then tell the world that they are inferior and that they are 20 to 30 years behind them.
The process that the pioneers (US and the EU) went through will always be the lengthiest because they have to come up with the designs, research and use appropriate materials, research and apply technologies and modern manufacturing techiques. Once the products are constructed numerous tests needs to be done via trial and error to determine the effectiveness and practicality of their product. So yes it takes time!
However, as times pass by more and more technologies, materials and manufacturing processes mature and becomes available, this will help developing countries catch such as China catch up. As we all know, they have plenty of money and they now have the luxury of new materials, technologies, manufacturing techniques and perhaps data to help them with the science and technological leap forward. You cannot predict how many years ahead or behind using the traditional method of thinking anymore. Things can only get quicker and easier as times pass.
Not to mention with China giving away so much financial aids and securing business deals around the world these days, you just never know what actually gets traded underneath the tables.
Here are some other things that may have contributed to China's recent achievements:
Clinton Gave China satellite and solid fuel technology to generate cash for his campaigns and personal gains.
B-2 Bomber, low signiture and stealth cruise missile technology sold to the Chinese.
Obama's proposed sale of B-2 spirit bomber blue print, stealth paint and metals to help US ease off Chinese debt.
It is also rumoured that the Lockheed EP-3 spy plane that was forced down near Hainan was actually an deliberate act to give the spy and radar technology to China as an payment to ease off debt. So it wouldn't surprise me one bit that China is so far ahead in the technological developments despite the embargo that was placed upon them by America and the EU since 1989.