Chengdu J-7

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union shared most of its conventional weapons technology with the People's Republic of China. One of these was the limited cooperation between the two countries in the early stage development of the famous MiG-21 short-range interceptor-fighter aircraft. Powered by a single engine and designed on a simple airframe, these fighters were inexpensive but fast, suiting the strategy of forming large groups of 'people's fighters' to overcome the technological advantages of Western aircraft. However, the Sino-Soviet split ended Chinese early participation in the developmental program of MiG-21 abruptly, and from July 28 to September 1, 1960, the Soviet Union withdrew its advisers from China, resulting in the project forced to stop in China.

However, Nikita Khrushchev suddenly wrote to Mao Zedong in February, 1962 to inform Mao that Soviet Union was ready to transfer the MiG-21 technology to China and asked Chinese to send their representatives to Soviet Union as soon as possible to discuss the details. Chinese viewed this as the Soviet gesture to make peace, and was obviously suspicious, but they were extremely quick to take upon the Soviet offer for the aircraft deal. A delegation headed by Colonel General Liu Yalou (刘亚楼), the commander-in-chief of PLAAF and a Soviet military academy graduate was dispatched to Moscow immediately and the Chinese delegation was even allowed to have three days to visit the production facility of MiG-21, which was previously off limit to foreigners. The authorization was personally given by Nikita Khrushchev himself, and on March 30, 1962, the deal was signed. However, given the political situation and relationship between the two countries, Chinese were not optimistic on gaining the technology and thus were prepared for reverse engineering.