J-20... The New Generation Fighter II

As there has been a lot of speculation and comparison, here are a set of images comparing the USAF F-22 Raptor (which has been produced in numbers of about 180 to date), with the PLAAF J-20:

pla101prc said:

gates's analysis doesnt make sense. because the test flight was reported in every major news site and newspaper in China...including the state owned CCTV.

if Hu was not informed about this, and the media actually cooperated with the military...then its really serious because right there Hu lost control over two most vital tools of governance...military and media. frankly i dont think that is possible.

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Let's asssume this. Hu spoke personally to Gates saying "Yes, now you see what we're capable of", Gates then instead decided to water out Hu's political message by making him look ridiculous.

Another way would be that both sides decided to play the same explanation so Gates's and Hu's trips will go on bumpless. Something for the militaries to know doesn't mean it's meant to affect civilian sectors

latenlazy said:

And the rest of the American press, before clarified and rectified later in the day.

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They are not going to rectify these "mistakes" regarding China.

Adding in one word, "leadership" after civilian changes the entire implication of that sentence, yet that's a very easy mistake to make, especially if it was first parsed through a translator. It's not uncommon for the American press to just shoot its mouth off before scrutinizing and double checking its references. In this case I'm more than certain that someone on the American end got it wrong and it circulated through the rest of the press. That's why I think it goes into conspiracy territory to insist that the American press is trying to create a splinter between China's military and political leaderships when far bigger mistakes have been made by the western media out of unintentional recklessness.

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How is it possible that you can be "more than certain" that its a mistake? China threat is not just some conspiracy but very much a reality in the media.

vesicles said:

Absolutely impossible! No one in their right mind would keep Hu in the dark for this important moment. Everyone knows that the test flight was more of a political move than technical. As the political leader of the nation, Hu would be the one who had to decide when, where and how the public test flight would take place. I wouldn't be surprised if they had multiple meetings on this. So to say Hu had no idea of the public test flight is like saying Hu had no idea of a national parade in Beijing on October 1, 2009. Politically two event have the same goal although the magnitude might be a little different. both would need the approval of Hu.

the timing the event suggests its tie to Hu's visit to the US. This means the public showing is an important strategic move. I don't think Hu forget about something this important.

Plus, a sudden change of the level of security around the airfield suggest a major change in the policies, which definitely needs approval from the top. No one would risk treason by leaking national secret (the J-20 tes flight, which proves the existence of the stealth fighter project) to the world.

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I beg to differ about the timing of flight being politically motivated. The progress of JXX prototype has been followed closely on SDF for the past year, we are more or less informed about critical stages of development such as final assembly in April, ground testing from October, lower speed taxiing from November & higher speed in late December etc. Then the maiden flight occurred in due process, apart from the weather drama on 7th Jan. I do believe the timing of flight was a technical matter instead of a political one, since nobody can shorten nor lengthen the timeframes for previous steps, though one may attach some cultural/sentimental importance to the specific 11/01/11 date.

Therefore Hu means what he says, the maiden flight of J20 was indeed planned beforehand, based on the actual progress of the project more than anything else.

Alternatively if they decided to postpone the flight due to Gate'd visit, that would be truly politically motivated.

But of course the assumption that Hu didn't know about the flight is utterly ludicrous even logically fallible, how do they know if Hu was simply surprised by the question itself other than the content of it?

latenlazy said:

The crazy story about how Obama's Indian visit cost 200 billion dollars was a great example of how the Western media can get things wrong solely based on hearsay and the need to beat out rivals.

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200billion dollars. that's like emptying half of fort knox into the sea in a very short time (I'd love to be swimming around the site where they dumped the gold)

airsuperiority said:

Let's asssume this. Hu spoke personally to Gates saying "Yes, now you see what we're capable of", Gates then instead decided to water out Hu's political message by making him look ridiculous.

Another way would be that both sides decided to play the same explanation so Gates's and Hu's trips will go on bumpless. Something for the militaries to know doesn't mean it's meant to affect civilian sectors

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The thing is that this was not Gates' analysis. The story, or rather, the particular spin about the civilian leadership being out of the loop, was given by some other "high official" who is not named. I think this is a person who's job it is to talk to the media.

President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, recently signed an order to honor Gan Xiaohua for his outstanding contribution on engine research. The CMC held a celebration rally for him on January 6 at the Air Force Armament Institute.

no offense, but let's get back to the plane. i dont really care about who says what, especially it's just a bunch of corn soup

^^ Have you guys seen the more risque versions of the anime girl J-20 on Chinese internets? I won't bother linking them since that is probably against the rules.

MwRYum said:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The problem is, the bigger resolution one I posted were originally from somewhere else, members-only type of place. I had to ask for help to get it post on somewhere more open...

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Very nice, that a real Japanese anime site, nice fine. Girl warrior is big in anime.