This claim is quite widely believed by (at least part of) the Chinese military enthuiast community, and has been extensively used as material to attack the 601th institution, so... okay and thanks for clearing their name I guess? Also I really don't see why you're so adament that 601 has absolutely nothing to do with the design of J-20
Appraently a few days back SAC posted a official article that stated that a number of members (possibly quite important ones) of the Guizhou Engine Institution have come to Shenyang. The article is quite vague as official reports are, but it does mention that they are "促进重点型号重大里程碑节点顺利完成", or in English: Pushing for a issue-free completion of a milestone of an important model. Considering that basically all known SAC-designed (and produced) aircrafts use Liming-produced engines with the exception of FC-31 V2.0, this article has a high probability of pointing toward a FC-31 based naval fighter using engines produced by Guizhou (ws-13E?)
Finger cross for ws-19, if there is a tiny hope for that…
Personally my hopes aren't high, but yeah fingers crossed
Very unlikely.
what makes you say that?
Simply since the WS-19 started later than any of these other two mentioned engines. So how can we seriously expect a prototype of a new fighter to make its maiden flight powered by an engine that is even behind to the WS-15 and WS-20?
true. But we also had no clue how it goes with the ws15, are we?