China is not interested in Su-35 and
. There is no reason for China to select an inferior product over domestic alternatives such as J-20.
The claims about Venezuela wanting to buy the Su-35 has much similarities with the claims made about China. Both claims flip flopped between saying an order has already been placed and the country is expressing an interest.
At this point, neither the J-20 or T-50 are through the prototype testing stage, due to the news black out on both, there is no way to know for certain how they are doing or where they are in the test phase. Picking the J-20, have they begun testing in the slow flight/stall/post stall flight regime? How does it handle when supersonic, how fast will it supercruise. The Su-35 is an extension of the Flanker genetics, it will be in production very shortly, it is supermanueverable, it will reportedly supercruise, it does have TVC, which is quite advantageous in an aircraft the size of a Flanker, and it is likely a match for the J-10, and will certainly outperform the J-11 family in the upclose and personal dogfight, to call it inferior is simply innaccurate. Yes the Venezuelans are interested, no they may not buy many if any, but then nobody is buying too much of anything and most countries in the JSF consortium have backed off some of their buy, and some have backed off everything but their school house birds. The PLAAF and the PLAN are building domestic Flankers, they lack TVC, and the avionics package offered on the Su-35, if China could buy two instead of fifty, its likely the check would be in the mail. IMHO, so lets deal with reality and when we resort to cheerleading for the home team, yes I do it too, and the reality of TVC from a USAF perspective is that it makes the Raptor a winner in the low speed furball, and no the Indians were not able to employ their aircraft to their full capability, because it is quite hairy to perform the type of full on aerobatics necessary to employ those tactics. And as you have well stated, we have all moved away from the low velocity, high thrust, low energy, scratch and spit contest, but with its ability to supercruise the Su-35 is a definate player there as well, so lets give credit, where credit is due.
