Improvements or changes to the J-31 likely continue a long-standing pattern of China’s apparent and somewhat visible effort to copy, steal, or mirror designs used for the U.S. F-35.
nationalinterest.org
Hi,
Many a years ago I stated on this forum and on sinodef that the J31 was a copy of the F-35 and there were many an innocent and incompetent who challenged me on that---.
"However, available photos show an even larger measure of similarity between the F-35 and Chinese J-31 multi-role fighter"
"At the same time, a 2018 Pentagon news story about DoD’s annual China report mentions that apparent similarities between the F-35 and Chinese
J-20 could very well be a result of espionage."
"As recently as last year, another
Global Times report said the J-31 showed design improvements at the 2019 Paris Air Show. Photos from the story reveal profound visual similarities between the F-35 and J-31. This is not without precedent, as the Chinese media itself has noted similarities between the two aircraft. "
"The only major difference, the paper notes, is that the U.S. has an F-35B Short Take Off and Landing variant and that the J-31 uses two engines compared to the F-35’s single engine propulsion configuration"
This article is a great read---.