Key Points and Summary – China’s J-20 “Mighty Dragon” has moved from selective flyovers to its first public static display at the PLAAF show in Changchun, signaling growing confidence in the stealth fighter.
-Recent sightings include a two-seat variant with frontline markings and reports of expanding production—some estimates suggest 250–300 in service, with Batch 10 airframes on hand.
China J-20 Fighters. Image Credit: Weibo.
-State media tout missions over the Bashi Channel, Tsushima Strait, and patrols around Taiwan.
-U.S. officials warn of looming numerical disadvantages in the region, while open-source analysts continue to debate J-20 quality, engines, and stealth maturity versus the F-35. Either way, China’s fifth-gen fleet is scaling fast.
China’s J-20 Gets Its First Public Display
The latest version of China’s J-20 stealth fighter has been making appearances throughout the last few months.
Back in late July, according to the South China Morning Post, the J-20, known as the “Mighty Dragon,” flew through the Tsushima Strait near Japan, an incursion that was briefly mentioned on Chinese state TV.
CCTV had stated that the J-20 “flies missions over the Bashi Channel and Tsushima Strait, and conducts patrols around Taiwan.” Assuming that was accurate, that flight had somehow fallen under the radar of the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.
Earlier in July, The War Zone had reported that the two-seat version of the J-20 was “poised” to enter operational service. The TWZ report cited a “flurry” of images that had surfaced online of the fighter.
Photos cited by the report featured the fighter “wearing national insignia as well as five-digit serials associated with a frontline People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) unit, specifically the 172nd Air Brigade.” This was seen as an indication that it had arrived in operational service, or at least was close to doing so.
And now, the J-20 has arrived for a much more public event than has typically been the case.
“The Star of the Show”
Global Times reported this week that the J-20 has arrived at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force show, where it will be on “static ground display” for the first time. Experts have described the J-20 as “the star of the show.”
China J-20 Weapons. Image Credit: Chinese Weibo.
The show is in Changchun, in Northeast China’s Jilin Province.
China Central Television (CCTV) and Global Times confirmed that the jet would be on display, with the latter even posting photos of the J-20 in position at the event. Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, had announced in late August that the show would feature the first static display of the J-20, along with “the first-ever flyovers by bomber formations and spectacular performances by the Bayi, Red Falcon and Sky Wing aerobatic teams.”
The show, per Global Times, features 125 different exhibits, including “93 types of aircraft, vehicles, and equipment.”
However, it’s the J-20 that is seen as the headliner of the event.
According to Interesting Engineering, the J-20 had up to this point “appeared in aerial displays and flyovers, with the general public not yet having had the opportunity to see it up close.”
A Big Fleet of J-20 Fighters
The Aviationist had more about the fighter’s appearance this week, including that the PLA Air Force has delivered at least 50 of the new jets since June of 2024, and 300 in total are now in service. Four J-20 fighters are participating in the air show, according to the report.
The Diplomat had put the number of J-20 fighters at 250 in the summer of 2024.
J-20 Mighty Dragon in Camo Back in 2018. Image Credit: Chinese Air Force.
The Aviationist story quoted an X post from Chinese military researcher Andreas Rupprecht, who posted photos of the fighter, and stated that “J-20 serial number 63106 has arrived at the Changchun Air Show 2025… It is assigned to the 19th Air Brigade and, even more importantly, finally it is one where the construction number is visible: CB10300, aka from Batch 10 & the 300th J-20 in total!”
Outnumbered?
According to the Aviationist story, Brig. Gen. Doug Wickert, 412th Test Wing commander, addressed the concerns of the U.S. falling behind China in terms of fighters during the “Back in the Saddle Day” at Edwards Air Force Base on January 7.
“In relation to U.S. assets stationed west of the international dateline, by 2027 the PLA is expected to have numerical superiority of approximately 12 to one in modern fighter aircraft (including five to three in fifth-generation aircraft) and three to one in maritime patrol aircraft,” the Edwards Air Force base description of the talk said.
“We are the smallest and oldest that we have ever been,” Wickert said during the Back in the Saddle Day talk. “The PLA is the largest and most modern that it has ever been. That is risk. That is uncertainty.”
F-35 vs. J-20
Earlier this week, Simple Flying did a comparison of how Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stacks up against the J-20.
China J-20 Screenshot. CCTV Screenshot from State TV.
While the F-35 “has become an icon of air power for America and many of its allies” through its distribution around the world, it risks falling behind its Chinese counterpart.
The J-20, the report said, “is a much larger and more intimidating-looking fighter jet,” although it could potentially suffer from the “poor quality” of some Chinese components, engines, and stealth tech.
Despite all that, per the story, the J-20 is “a powerhouse of speed and range with the stealth and tech aboard to give it respectable fangs against its Western adversaries.”
While both fighters have their strengths and weaknesses, Simple Flying concluded that in a combat situation, “It’s difficult to make a direct assessment of how the two would fare on the same battlefield without considering several important doctrinal and strategic factors.”
Where Did It Come From?
Planning for the J-20 dates back to 2008, and it was put into production nearly a decade later, in 2017.
The full origins of the J-20 are not entirely known, but various reports over the years have indicated that elements of it were borrowed, if not “stolen,” from the designs of other countries’ planes.
China J-20 Fighter. Image Credit: PLAAF/Chinese Air Force.
The J-20 was the first-ever non-American stealth platform to enter service. And per Sandboxx, “many within both the United States and Russia [have] accused the People’s Republic of China of stealing their stealth fighter designs to hurry their own jet into service.”
China’s stealth fighter, per Sandboxx, should be considered the “bastard child” of three earlier fighters: Russia’s MiG-1.44, and the American F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Information was likely gleaned from a Chinese national who was arrested in 2014 and later pleaded guilty to charges of stealing a large cache of information from Boeing and Lockheed Martin, related to their fighter jet programs.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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