China Shows Off Stealth Fighter Jet In First Public Ground Display

Twitter is flooded with tweets showing what appears to be China’s first public ground viewing of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s stealth fighter jet.

State-owned media outlet China Daily reported, “this is the time for J-20s, one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets, to appear in front of the public on the ground” at the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Guangdong province’s Zhuhai on Saturday afternoon.

“The stealth plane had carried out several flight performances at previous Zhuhai Airshows and had flown in military parades, but have never been close to the public out of consideration for confidentiality,” China Daily said.

The J-20 is China’s first stealth combat aircraft that made its maiden flight in 2011 and was officially declassified in 2016. It was deployed by the PLAA Air Force in 2017, becoming the third stealth fighter jet in the world to enter service after US F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. In 2020, Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 entered service with the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Global powers are locked in an arms race to procure fifth-generation fighters and hypersonic weapons as threats of the next conflict increase by the month.