Did the United States taxpayer fund the development of China's backbone fighter plane?

score:9

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To be fair, the J10 also looks similar to the Eurofighter Typhoon. If it really hinges on the canards, pneumatics and rumours…
At first I read the question as "did Chinese spies steal" information to be used in their fighter jet. But I guess the taxpayer angle (which might be 'paying for it' in yet other ways) distracts from the issue: is the plane really that similar? Did Israel really sell knowhow?

The "Russians confirmed" angle is quite a curious twist to confirm or deny this "allegation". It seems quite implausible to rely on this kind of hearsay and rumour mongering if there are much better sources out there.

The Jerusalem Letter and Jerusalem Letter/Viewpoints are published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 13 Tel-Hai St., Jerusalem, Israel. In No. 473 17 Adar 5762 / 1 March 2002

Jonathan Adelman writes THE PHALCON SALE TO CHINA: THE LESSONS FOR ISRAEL

Israel's military relationship with China included cooperation on the J-10 advanced fighter plane (modeled on the Israeli Lavi jet fighter) and a series of other military projects. Trade between the two sides reached over $500 million by 2000.4
Footnote 4. Buzzy Gordon, "China-Israel Business Ties Deepen," Jerusalem Post, July 26, 2000.

If Israeli sources report this kind of deal for years, I do not see that much reason to doubt that some of the technology, knowhow or concepts, data were used by the Chinese to develop that plane. What these deals or cooperations included is of course another matter.

It pretty much looks like the Americans getting wind of that deal and realising the outcome, not liking it, pressuring Israel to not do that again. And Chinese, Israeli and Russian Wikipedia just matter of factly mentioning this connection on the side: all being spot on on this general level (technology was sold, no specifics.).

Upvote:2

China's extended campaign of commercial espionage has raided almost every highly developed economy. But far and away its biggest targets have been the military secrets of the United States.

The J-10 is widely regarded as a copy of the American F-16 and by extension the Israeli Lavi. More damaging the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter Is believed to be based upon the plans for the American F-22 air superiority fighter stolen from Lockheed Martin by Chinese National Su Bin.

Counterfeit Air Power: Meet China's Copycat Air Force
Plans for the Lockheed Martin design (F-22) were stolen by a Chinese national named Su Bin, who was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for his crime. The repercussions of his efforts on behalf of the Chinese government will live on for decades.

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HOW THE US FORCED CHINA TO QUIT STEALING—USING A CHINESE SPY The C-17 wasn’t the hacker’s only target; they filched information about other aircraft as well. Investigators believe they pillaged 220 MB of data related to the F-22 Raptor, as well as files related to the F-35, including its flight test protocols, which Su carefully translated into Chinese. The thefts would be critical to helping the Chinese understand—and copy—the world’s most advanced multirole fighter plane, which had cost $11 billion to develop.

China has also copied Russian aircraft.

  • Shenyang J-11/16 and Russian Sukhoi Su-27

China Stole This Fighter From Russia—and It's Coming to the South China Sea
The Shenyang J-11 is a Chinese copy of the excellent Russian Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” multirole fighter. In fact, it was at first an authorized copy—but Chinese ambitions to adapt it with locally produced technology transformed it into a reverse-engineered headache for Russian industry.

  • Shenyang J-15 and Russian Sukhoi Su-33
  • FC-1 Xiaolong and Soviet MiG-21

Sources:

Upvote:4

It is an old trope "Chinese are copycats, unable to develop nothing by themselves"

In history of military aviation everybody was copying successful ideas from everybody. It all started with Synchronized machine gun, maybe even before that. It is no secret Chinese were behind Americans and Soviets in aviation technology. They were looking to catch-up in all possible ways. Chinese certainly had theoretical knowledge what is canard , what advantages and disadvantages it gives, and they had examples of this technology in fighters that already used it. So, when they decided to build fighter with canards, they were certainly copying general idea but not concrete technologies.

As for Lavi program, or Soviet Mig 1.44, both of these were only in prototype stage, and they both differ in various ways from final configuration of both J-10A and J-10B . Lavi especially has different engine, different shape of tail, and different shape of wings, not to mention different avionics. It is true that Israelis did sell some of technology for Lavi to China, but how much of that technology was funded by US, and how much was it worth ? It is highly unlikely Chinese would not be able to proceed without that technology because they already copied and improved various Soviet fighters like Mig-19 and Mig-21, and developed indigenous planes like J-8 and Q-5. Also, there were other parties willing to cooperate with China, not only Russia but also countries like France, Italy etc ...

As for US taxpayer funding Chinese military, this is true, but in a different way. Americans buy Chinese goods, part of that money certainly goes to PLA. It is also trough that relatively cheap Chinese goods improve quality of life of average American, because similar US built goods are usually much more expensive. Finally, Chinese workers fund US military, because companies selling Chinese products to US had to pay taxes.

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