In any country and in any industry, hiding one's own secrets and obtaining other people's secrets is a very costly thing. Whether or not to protect a secret depends on the cost of protecting it and the cost of divulging it
China does have very strict secrecy measures in the field of military scientific research. Like what:
Chinese reusable spacecraft (similar to the United States X-37B). This thing has been in operation for more than a decade, and every time it is launched and recovered, the official news has a written announcement telling us that this thing does exist. But to this day, we only have one unconfirmed (many suspect fake) old photo.
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In China, military enthusiasts are no less fanatical than their friends on the PDF. They will use all kinds of legal and illegal methods to obtain information about the PLA and show it off on the Internet.
More than a decade ago, there were many very well-known military online communities in China. Among those who are active here are researchers in military scientific research units and active high-ranking technical officers of the PLA. When they speak, they directly use very professional terminology and data, and some even directly publish the most cutting-edge academic papers. This has led to a number of very serious leaks. Eventually, the Chinese government had to force the closure of these online communities.
However, this did not stop Chinese military enthusiasts.
Now, we usually communicate on some integrated social platform rather than a dedicated military forum. We use special terms that the average Chinese can't understand at all, let alone translate into other languages. We only communicate in these unique coteries, and any information we deem inappropriate for public release will be kept strictly confidential. No one wants to go to prison for the rest of their lives.
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The FC31 is an export fighter, and the SAC has secrecy measures in place for some of its internal designs and data, but there is no need to keep its flight activities secret.
I have been emphasizing: so far only the PLA Navy procures J35, PLAAF does not procure J31. Whether PLAAF will purchase J31 in the future is not certain, and we have not even seen any official news of PLAAF's interest in FC31, all of which are analyses by so-called military experts. The development of the FC31 into three models similar to the F35A/B/C is also reported by the manufacturer.
From a military point of view, the J31 does not fit into the current PLAAF. CAC is already manufacturing J20 on a large scale, and the pulsating production line has greatly reduced the cost of J20. So, why did PLAAF buy the J31? (Except for nominal purchases)
We know that China now uses pulsating production lines for the production of new aircraft. Such a line would produce at very high speeds and significantly reduce costs. But it requires a certain amount to have to have this effect. Otherwise, the high cost of production line construction will not be recovered at all.
At the moment, we know that only PAF is willing enough to buy FC31. However, PAF was unable to support a large fleet of FC31s. With the purchase volume of PAF, it is not enough to support a pulsating production line. If the manufacturing cost will be much higher if the traditional assembly mode is not used for the pulsating production line, can PAF accept a higher price?
Although the J35 was developed from the FC31, they have a lot in common. But the bodies are so different that they can't share a pulsating production line. The demand for the J35 in the PLA Navy is a huge number, enough to support the pulsating production line.
My analysis, this is the current dilemma of FC31.
