Yesterday, huzhigeng struck again, bringing more insider news from 611 Institute (Chengdu Aircraft Corporation). Anyways here they are.
Last month, when a person asked whether JF-17 will be modified into a low observable, aka stealth design:
"Chengdu has an export pre-4th gen (5th gen in US/Russian standard)designated as J-2X.Pakistan and third world countries have demands for it. Of course, 611 can expect to get some order from Chinese air force also. It is about the size of F-35, and the design has already been presented to Pakistan."
Link:
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Yesterday, he reinstated this point:
"4th Gen (referring to J-20)'s little brother is also being designed."
Furthermore, he elaborated on recent exchanges between the two countries:
"PAF recently sent a group of represenatives to CAC. They looked at a few designs for their 4th gen, and in general they were pretty satisfied."
Link:
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When asked about the neccessity of SAC's project, he briefly mentioned future directions in design:
"611 (CAC) will continue to utilize canards in their future designs. This is both a tradition and a legacy, much like Lockheed Martin and their conventional designs. North (referring to SAC) will feature mostly conventional layouts. Of course, from the looks of JF-17, CAC's conventional designs aren't bad either. Now it remains to be seen whether J-2X (Pakistan's project) will have conventional or canard design."
Link:
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Notice the "pre-4th gen" in his statement. Now the reason he said "pre-4th" gen is because to qualify for 4th gen, China use the 4S standard.
Supercruise,
Stealth,
Supermanoevurability and
Sensor Fusion are the 4S criteria. Because of that criteria, F-35 is not considered a true 4th (5th) gen in China as it cannot supercruise, and is not thought to be as very manoevurable either (compared to other 4th gen). So this version Pakistan is getting presented will most likely not meet all 4S.
If I had to take a guess, I think it would not be able to supercruise like F-35.