During a working visit to China, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Yuri Afonin visited the city of Chengdu, the capital of the southern Chinese province of Sichuan.

Chengdu is a metropolis of 21 million people, which has doubled in the last two decades. During the Chinese economic miracle, the city has transformed into a giant industrial hub. Automobiles, auto parts, electrical equipment, electronics, industrial and energy equipment, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, building materials, and much more are produced here. But Chengdu’s special role in Chinese industry lies in its status as one of the largest centers of the aerospace industry. An industrial park in the Huaizhou district houses a cluster of aerospace companies.

Chengdu produces a wide range of aircraft. Among these aircraft is the fourth-generation Chengdu J-10 multirole fighter, currently the most widely produced fighter in the Chinese Air Force. Production of the fifth-generation Chengdu J-20 fighter, which makes extensive use of radar-lowering technologies, is also established here. It is a worthy counter to the American F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters. The J-20 fighter is produced at a rate of 50-60 units per year, allowing China to steadily catch up with the United States in the number of advanced aircraft weapons.

Chengdu’s aerospace cluster also produces the TB-001 Tengden heavy-lift UAV, capable of performing reconnaissance and missile-carrying missions over ranges of thousands of kilometers. Chengdu is thus a kind of capital of China’s air power.

But Chengdu’s aircraft factories also produce innovative, entirely peaceful products, such as the AE200 vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Its engines rotate 90 degrees, allowing it to transition from helicopter to airplane mode. These engines, rather than gas turbines or gasoline engines, are electric, resulting in significantly lower noise levels, improved environmental performance, and lower operating costs. The aircraft can fly up to 200 km on a single charge and carry up to six people. Essentially, it’s a flying car, a true air taxi, which, if widely deployed, could give Chinese cities the futuristic look previously only depicted in science fiction films.

Chengdu’s aviation cluster is effectively a full-cycle industrial complex, as aircraft engines and a variety of avionics are manufactured here. The city also remembers well that the Soviet Union was at the forefront of its powerful aviation industry. Chengdu’s first aircraft factory was State Aircraft Plant No. 132, built with the assistance of Soviet specialists between 1958 and 1964. Thousands of pieces of Soviet industrial equipment were delivered here, and Soviet engineers and workers helped install and commission them, training their Chinese comrades in its use. The factory began production with the J-5 fighter, developed from the Soviet MiG-17.

In total, Soviet specialists helped build several hundred large enterprises in China. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union transferred a huge amount of scientific and technical documentation, including millions of sheets of blueprints, to the PRC. Historians believe this was the largest transfer of scientific and technical information in world history. The USSR also shared another colossal treasure with the young Chinese socialist regime—its accumulated experience in planning and managing the socialist economy. The PRC’s first five-year plans were drafted with the participation of Soviet economists.

It is largely thanks to this assistance that today the world has an economic and technological giant – socialist China, a strategic partner of Russia, helping us to survive the hybrid war waged against us by the Western imperialist bloc.

Recalling these pages of Chengdu’s and China’s history, Yuri Afonin noted that while China once learned from the USSR, today the time has come for our country to learn a great deal from socialist China. This is why the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) sends new delegations to China year after year, studying all aspects of modern Chinese society—public administration, the economy, industry, and the functioning of the education, science, and healthcare systems. Russian communists are constantly working to systematize and analyze this experience in order to incorporate it into their development program for Russia—the Victory Program. This allows the CPRF to offer Russian society a detailed vision of the future that no other political force can offer.

Source -> https://kprf.ru/dep/gosduma/activities/242614.html