I suppose what I was suggesting is that the current J-20 configuration is not exactly a finished fifth-gen product. The WS-15 really needs to be brought along to give the J-20 the ability to supercruise, as well as thrust vectoring to make it a lethal dog fighter should a J-20 pilot ever find him/herself at the merge, and only then would it render the J-20 a true fifth-gen platform. Until then, I believe the current J-20A as it stands is a stop-gap variant to answer the PLAAF's current need for a stealth air superiority fighter if a conflict or incursion were to break out in the near future, thus giving Shenyang time and valuable experience to tinker and develop a true fifth-gen platform that can go toe for toe (and hopefully outmatch!) against the Raptor and Fat Amy in both a BVR and dogfight setting. While China's economy is booming undeniably, would it be economically/financially/strategically reasonable or viable to produce a large amount of stopgap solutions when Shenyang is at the cusp of breakthrough?
Factoring the realistic finite resources the PLA is limited to (contrary to the unlimited resources our wet dreams seemingly are made up of that allow the fielding of an all fifth-gen J-20+FC/J-31 fleet
), an air tasking order composed of both forth and fifth-gen fighters I suggested in my original post (quick recap: J-20s knocks enemy aircraft out fo the sky with stealth BVR to achieve air superiority, clearing the skies for J-10/J-11s to perform fighter sweep/AWACS+tanker escort mission while J-16s knocks the door down on the ground) should formulate the backbone of the PLAAF's counter air/anti access area denial strategy within the timeframe of the next 5-10 years until a more mature J-20 and the FC/J-31 can be fielded.Surely that'd explain why China continues to invest in the Flanker models along side the fielding/development of their fifth-gen fighter projects, progressing the J-11 all the way to the D model (giving it an AESA radar, better flight control system, EW capabilities, the ability to fire BVR PL-15 missles, and seemingly putting it on equal footing with the Su-35 as well as the Super Hornet), while pumping out more J-16s (even developing the J-16D platform to deliver the Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses mission)? I'm sure Trump, Pompeo, and their Sinophobic goons would love to field an Air Force made purely of F-22 and F-35 fighters. But at the end of the day Congress as well as the Defense and Budget subcommittees would say otherwise... and as such why the Viper, both variants of the Eagle, as well as the different variations of the Hornet models continue to play important roles in America's defense strategy as well as her ability to project power around the globe.
If we are to look at the PLAAF's fleet inventory beyond this decade into the 2030s, you'd have to imagine by that time that sixth-gen fighters would have to come into play. We're yet to know what features define the sixth-gen platform, and how these capabilities would alter PLA's strategy and the PLAAF's fleet composition to deliver said strategy. I mean heck, we are even just speculating what the imminent arrival of H-20 means for the PLA, and the objectives it can deliver strategically for the PLAAF (is it a direct parallel to the B-2/B-21? Does it render the H-6/JH-7 obsolete?), and more importantly how it would alter the PLAAF's air tasking order. While we are beginning to see the sixth-gen fighter come into shape, we only know enough to postulate what a sixth-gen fighter can do strategically, and how the PLAAF's combat fleet will be composed of.
