By 2011, China's fighter design bureau and defense industrial firms earned a reputation for turning out two types of aircraft: either adaptations of foreign designs subsequently modified by a Chinese design team or models that nearly mirrored the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30MK series. Though based on 1980s innovations, the aircraft and technology transfer that came with them nonetheless helped move the Chinese air power into the 21st century.
With the first flight of the Chengdu J-20 in January 2011, China's industry—led by the Chengdu (CAC) and Shenyang (SAC) Aerospace Corporations—joined the ranks of nations manufacturing new-generation fighter aircraft. Over the years, the Shenyang enterprise developed a reputation as the facility charged with developing reverse-engineered analogs of the Russian-made Su-27, Su-30MK, and the carrier-capable Su-33. Those designs became the different variants of Shenyang’s J-11B-series, themselves versions of the J-16, and the J-15, which operate from the People’s Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN) Liaoning-class ski-ramp carriers.
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