well brother as i said it is HALs first attempt to design and make a advanced 4th gen fighter jet while chinese had been making fighter jets for more than 30 years before
India is into jet fighter manufacturing business from mid 50s. HAL has made HF-24 Marut (first flight in 1961), assembled Ajeet (first flight in 1976), MiG21, Jaguar, MKI etc. So Indian aeronautical industry is almost as old as that of China. China is not working on 4th gen fighter jets from 30 years, it is pretty recent development.
In war---the weapons of choice are weapons systems that have proven their battle worthiness over a period of time.
Totally incorrect, otherwise USA wont have dropped
little boy and
enola gay on Japan. When did these systems prove their battle worthiness over period of time prior to their dropping? During the WWI and WW2, both the sides (axis, and allies) repeatedly fielded all sorts of weapon system (from armored vehicles to fighter jets, to missiles) designed and developed during war time.
The chinese were working on stolen technology---they had to learn through trial and error---.
This is what we call
More loyal than the king. Even to work with the stolen technology, you have to have advanced (not basic or intermediate) understanding of the system. I for instance, cant reproduce a painting from Vermeer only because I can paint and somehow could get my hands on his work. For that to happen, I myself have to be an accomplished artist, so that I could understand the stroke style, pigments used in the painting, and the composition thereof. You think reverse engineering is a joke? Than why others couldn't do it? What is so special with Chinese?
US's standing in aerospace technology is also based on stolen technology, in fact worse than this, abducted technology. After WWII, thousands of German scientists, engineers, and technicians were abducted and brought into the USA under a clandestine operation called Operation Paperclip.
These are but the few known scientists/engineers worked for USA aerospace industry:
Rudi Beichel, Magnus von Braun, Wernher von Braun, Werner Dahm, Konrad Dannenberg, Kurt H. Debus, Walter Dornberger, Ernst R. G. Eckert, Krafft Arnold Ehricke, Otto Hirschler, Hermann H. Kurzweg, Fritz Mueller, Eberhard Rees, Gerhard Reisig, Georg Rickhey, Werner Rosinski, Ludwig Roth, Arthur Rudolph, Ernst Steinhoff, Ernst Stuhlinger, Bernhard Tessmann, Georg von Tiesenhausen, Sighard F. Hoerner, Siegfried Knemeyer, Alexander Martin Lippisch, Hans Multhopp, Hans von Ohain, Kurt Tank etc.
Without their contribution, USA was not reaching to moon or elsewhere. Even the concept of US's most prized B2 bomber is based on German Horten Ho 229 (first flight in March 1944).
Shikwa beja bhi kare koi to laazim hai sha'ur