Creation: Editorial Department of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
Today (November 5th), the Air Force in Beijing held a press conference to introduce information about celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Air Force’s founding and participating in the 15th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as Zhuhai Airshow), and announced that a new fighter jet developed by China—the J-35—will be displayed at this airshow, sparking widespread domestic discussion. According to currently available online data, the J-35 is a medium-sized stealth fighter newly launched by AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China), with a maximum payload of about 35 tons, making it lighter than the most advanced heavy stealth fighters like the J-20. Once operational, it will mainly be used to compare with U.S. models like the F-35, replacing older Chinese fighters such as the J-7 and J-8, and will be deployed as carrier-based aircraft on Liaoning and Fujian aircraft carriers, among others.
From many features of the J-35, it can be seen that China’s imperialist military preparation goals for the near future. Compared to the more advanced and heavier J-20, the J-35 has a smaller size, but this also means it can be more widely deployed by the Chinese Air Force, indicating that China’s aircraft technology has shifted from a few cutting-edge models to main force models, beginning preparations for large-scale external conflicts that China might face in the future. The primary target for the J-35 is the U.S. F-35, and it will also be carried on Chinese aircraft carriers, which clearly indicates that the J-35 will mainly be used in the struggle for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region between China and the U.S.
Some have said that China (the Chinese) and the U.S. are separated by a Soviet Union (Soviet revisionism), which has some truth. At least in military terms, China still lags behind the U.S., and even the long-dismantled Soviet Union was somewhat superior. In terms of military aircraft, after the capitalist restoration, China introduced foreign capital to undermine the socialist foundation, fully restoring capitalism with Western imperialist support, and began to promote a philosophy of foreign dependence, under the banner of “buy rather than produce,” extensively importing foreign machinery and equipment, abandoning self-reliant military projects developed during socialism, and indiscriminately accepting foreign military experts’ opinions and Western military design ideas, thus embarking on a path of imitation and copying. The military-industrial complex established during socialism was thus destroyed under the influence of foreign dependence: Shenyang Aircraft became “Shen-Hooy”[1], Chengdu Aircraft became “Cheng-Luo-Fei”[2], Xi’an Aircraft became “Xi-Bo-Lie-F”[3], and China’s military aircraft have since become “Wanguo Brand.” While claiming socialism outwardly, China’s body followed capitalism, believing that the products of the old capitalist countries must be the best, expecting Western imperialists to freely provide the most advanced R&D technologies, and attempting to develop its own fighters by copying from the U.S. and the USSR, hoping to create a “strong air force country” through imitation.
However, blindly copying is doomed to fail. As an advanced model China places high hopes on, the J-35’s launch will inevitably be accompanied by media hype praising its performance and “originality.” Among major media outlets, the J-35 is portrayed as a new model independently developed by China, with data supposedly “surpassing” the U.S. F-35, giving China an advantage in the air force domain. But in reality, the F-35 was successfully test-flown as early as 2006, and comparing it to older models from 20 years ago does not prove the J-35’s superiority. Moreover, since the first public appearance of the J-35 in 2012[4], it took at least twelve years to develop its official model “J-35A.” In comparison, the U.S. F-35, which the J-35 is often compared to, began design in 1996 and was successfully developed in ten years by 2006[5]. Even assuming China’s design was 100% independent from scratch, it would still lag behind the U.S. by at least two years. Additionally, the initial design of the J-35 closely resembled the F-22 and F-35, especially the F-35[6], and even the current model cannot erase its “ancestry” with the F-35[7]. If, after spending vast amounts of money and time, China produces a fighter jet that is a copy of another country’s aircraft, how can it be called “advanced”? Finally, the specific parameters of the J-35 are still subject to practical verification. The so-called parameters widely hyped by China are actually sourced from data cited by Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po from AVIC[8]. These parameters are inherently suspicious due to exaggerated figures[9], and whether the information from Wen Wei Po truly originates from AVIC remains uncertain. The heavily hyped J-35 by China is already under serious doubt and even disadvantages, so how can it truly close the gap with the U.S. Air Force or surpass it? Such self-praise not only deceives patriotic nationalists lacking basic fighter jet knowledge but also fools no one else.
Although China’s development of the J-35 is far from enabling it to catch up with the U.S., it is indeed draining the blood and sweat of the Chinese people. To develop the J-35, China has long invested a large amount of surplus value plundered from the people, and after successful development, the cost per J-35 is estimated to reach 54 million[10] to 70 million USD[11], roughly 390 million to 500 million RMB. Even at the lowest estimate, this requires 100 workers earning 3,000 yuan per month to work without eating or drinking for 109 years, or 1,000 workers working for 10 years to produce just one J-35! Yet, the J-35 produced with such huge expenditure can only be used for external aggressive wars, competing with the U.S. for global hegemony, and suppressing potential revolutionary activities domestically. Moreover, these brutal figures reveal another harsh reality: as long as China aggressively promotes militarization of its national economy, it can easily exploit the blood and sweat of countless workers through expensive war machines like the J-35. Such reckless exploitation allows China’s overabundant market funds to flow into the military-industrial complex, channeling already excessive productive capacity into fulfilling state orders beyond the people’s consumption capacity, reaping “guaranteed profits.” However, the vicious expansion of military industry inevitably leads to the contraction of civilian industry, which diminishes the people’s consumption ability, causes severe economic crises, and drastically reduces state taxes, ultimately depriving the military-industrial complex of its sales. China’s militarization of the national economy will only plunge it into deeper economic crises, hastening its own demise rather than saving it.
Another major scheme of China is to hope that after imperialist wars break out, new weapons like the J-35 can give it more chances of victory in this brutal conflict, winning the final victory. But this is also wishful thinking. The history of the two World Wars has shown that all unjust imperialist wars will be opposed by the people of the respective countries, who are already exhausted and tormented by war. Heavy casualties among the people, worsening famine, economic devastation at home, intensified political persecution, and billionaires profiting from exploiting the masses—none of these crises can be solved by new weapons; they only lead to one outcome: a revolution to overthrow China’s imperialist social imperialism. War provokes revolution; revolution stops war. If China’s imperialist social imperialism dares to rely on new weapons to wage aggressive wars, it will also taste the bitterness of revolution.
China believes that the appearance of the J-35 can save its faltering fascist rule, add a war weapon to compete with the U.S., and internally, strengthen militarization to ease the increasingly severe overproduction crisis, achieving political and economic gains simultaneously. But Chairman Mao already pointed out, “Any backward behavior results contrary to the original wishes of the initiator”[12]. Once, the desperate Nazi Germany pinned its hopes of reversing defeat on a few new weapons, but they did not prevent its defeat; the once-rampant Soviet social imperialism also regarded extensive rearmament and militarization as a lifeline to save its shaky economy, but it too ultimately disintegrated in a spectacular collapse. Historical experience shows that whether China attempts to use its new weapons to win in imperialist wars or to serve as a panacea for economic salvation, its outcome will not be better than that of its predecessors, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Named after the Soviet Union’s Sukhoi aircraft design bureau, mocking Shenfei’s habitual copying of Soviet fighters. Of course, China’s major military aircraft industrial groups actually pursue pragmatic strategies, always attempting to “develop” new fighters through patchwork, so the term may not be entirely accurate. ↩︎
Named after the U.S. fighter manufacturer Lockheed Martin, mocking Chengdu’s habitual copying of American fighters. ↩︎
Named after the Soviet design bureau Tupolev, mocking Xi’an’s habitual copying of Soviet bombers and transport aircraft. ↩︎
What China Plans to Do With the J-31 Stealth Fighter, an F-35 Copycat - Business Insider ↩︎
https://www.wenweipo.com/a/202402/19/AP65d26430e4b06013908c7fef.htm ↩︎
Based on the parameters released by Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po, the maximum takeoff weight of the J-35 is 35 tons, exceeding the U.S. F-35’s 31 tons, and only 3 tons less than Russia’s Su-57 at 35 tons. In flight speed, the J-35 has reached Mach 2.2, far surpassing the F-35, with only a slight difference from the F-22’s Mach 2.2, and exceeding the Su-57’s Mach 2. In combat radius, the J-35 reaches an astonishing 1350 km, while the F-22 needs to carry auxiliary fuel tanks to match it, and the F-35 and Su-57 are even more distant. In payload capacity, the relatively small medium stealth fighter can carry up to 8 long-range supersonic air-to-surface missiles in its bomb bay and wing mounts, far beyond current fighter standards and comparable to bombers. According to data from Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po or AVIC, the J-35 seems to be a world-leading fighter. The credibility of such exaggerated parameters is highly questionable. ↩︎
https://web.archive.org/web/20200609034851/http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/jssd/2018-03-22/doc-ifysnevk6884804.shtml ↩︎
Mao Zedong, “Selected Works of Mao Zedong,” Volume 1, p. 696, People’s Publishing House, 1967. ↩︎
