Skeptism to China's carrier-borne jet should be mute

BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign media reports have claimed that China's new J-15 carrier-borne fighter jet is merely a copy of a Russian model. Such an assertion is groundless and sour.

The J-15 made its debut in a landing and take-off exercise on China's aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, last weekend.

Chinese people hailed the successful test that makes the country one of the few around the world to operate carrier-borne jets.

It is not surprising that some western media quickly responded to the inspiring news with criticism and taunts, since the J-15, with an unfinished coating during the exercise had a similar aerodynamic shape with the Russian Su-33 jet.

There is always criticism of China for the crime of "plagiarism" when the country makes progress in military hardware development, questioning China's respect to others' intellectual property rights and belittling the hardware's technological and tactical qualities.

The criticism is also not surprising because China has often achieved progress within a much shorter period of time than what it usually has taken some western countries to do.

It is true that China used to rely heavily on imported Russian military aircraft, warships and other hardware to modernize its troops due to a lack of independent innovation abilities.

But people should not use that as an excuse for criticising Chinese people who have made tough endeavors and even sacrifices in developing the J-15's engine, fire-control system, electronics system and other key components.

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