Actually the article didn't say anything. I believe it was clear taken out of original proper time context. The page is just reprinting an old article. Note the text, googled.
you obviously have missed all of the AVIC1 articles that stated WS-10A is in mass production right now. You can't compare WS-10A to WS-9, they have completely different priorities.
One thing you should notice is that, after the cold war, most if not all fighter planes do not have large production numbers. Instead, they all have small batch productions. It's the same case with J10. There are J10 batch 00 to 02, then J10 block I (or A) etc.... None of those configurations got a large/mass production. This is the norm rather than transition. in the next decade to come, there will be more variants of J10s coming but that doesn't mean J10 is transitional and PLAAF is aiming something else. IMHO, China's 4th gen fighter won't be ready before 2020. J10 and J11 still has couple of decades lives.From the recent news, we can see clearly that J-10, or WS-10a are just transitional goals for PLAAF. The new airplanes are coming from the drawing board(there are other speculations as well), same improvement probably from the engine as well.
I have some doubt that the current configuration of J-10 or WS-10a will go to mass production. The engine, WS-10a needs at least 3-5 years to get mutured for that. The Chinese real goal at least should be the improved version of WS-10a that powers the J-10 Mod version airplane with some kind of stealth feature.
It's quite prudent for them just do small batch production, to solve all the problem encounted for the brand new versions of engine and airplane, not unexpectedly. In 1970s, when China rushed to mass produce the new turbo engines, the problem of broken blade merged from that and forced to ground the whole airplane fleet. They couldn't solve the problem in the short time and the case went up finally to Chinese prime minister, Zhou Enlai. They definitely learned something from that.
One thing you should notice is that, after the cold war, most if not all fighter planes do not have large production numbers. Instead, they all have small batch productions. It's the same case with J10. There are J10 batch 00 to 02, then J10 block I (or A) etc.... None of those configurations got a large/mass production. This is the norm rather than transition. in the next decade to come, there will be more variants of J10s coming but that doesn't mean J10 is transitional and PLAAF is aiming something else. IMHO, China's 4th gen fighter won't be ready before 2020. J10 and J11 still has couple of decades lives.
The J10 production rate is no where near F16 at its peak, no where near planed JSF rate. It's little bit better than F22. According to this rate (50/yr), it will take 20 years to make 1000 J10, PLAAF can take a long vacation then.
The rational estimate should put this kind of production at 300-500/yr, to meet PLAAF's requirement. CAC's original design capability is 2 J7/day.
What is called "mass production" hasn't come yet, wait 5 years to see.
Oh well, if 300-500/yr is your standard of mass production, you can be sured that you won't see it happening to any fighter plane in 21st century, unless WWIII is started.
IMHO, the upper limit of J10 (all variants included) production is 800 panning 15 years.
If J-10 is only a stopgap meassure it's a really a waste of resources
Not at all. J-10 is the first airplane that uses the home grown modern design/manufacturing technology in China, spare S-27 which is transfered. It's still efficient to handle 90% of the threat Chinese faces, excluding USAF.
So relative large number will be produced, for combat purpose and for muturing production technology purpose. The next generation fighters will grow from it using the same facilities and infrastructures, by same engineers. The production/design of J-10 will greatly accelerate the development of Chinese 5th aircrafts.