China has showcased its latest fighter jet at the Zhuhai Air Show on Tuesday, in a powerful show of force.
The J-35A is the most advanced stealth fighter jet that Beijing has developed, as it seeks to challenge US air superiority.
A video clip released by China’s national media shows the plane flying through the air vertically and upside down.
The new stealth fighter is China’s answer to Lockheed Martin’s F-35, which has been described as the “most advanced” military plane by its manufacturers.
The biennial airshow was attended by senior Chinese officials as well as Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
The event is one of the biggest of its kind in Asia and is designed to showcase China’s rapidly growing tech capabilities.
Beijing’s latest drones and missiles were also on display for the public to see.
Officials told state television: “For the first time, new equipment such as the medium-weight, stealth multi-role fighter J-35A, the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile and a new type of reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle will be on display.”
A Russian SU-57 stealth fighter jet was also on display at the airshow, in a sign of growing military cooperation between the two countries.
“The more external challenges we face, the more resolute we must be in uniting to defend our common interests,” Shoigu was later quoted as saying.
The J-35A is designed and built by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, a unit of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
It is superficially similar to the Lockheed Martin F-35, whose shape – from fuselage to control surfaces – is designed to minimise how large it appears on radar.
The new jet is expected to form a key part of the ability of China’s navy to project power beyond its home waters in the coming years.
China’s development of stealth fighters has for years been dogged by accusations that it stole crucial technology from the US.
Beijing has vigorously denied those claims, which came to light with the 2015 publication by German magazine Der Spiegel of documents purportedly from US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
Those documents claimed Chinese spies had hacked America’s $2trillion F-35 programme back in 2007.
In 2016, a Chinese national named Su Bin pleaded guilty to charges of spying for Beijing.
He stole top-secret designs for America’s stealth fighters, the F-22 and F-35 in collaboration with high-ranking Chinese officials.
