Even so, in terms of lifespan / engine, thrust ratio and so forth, China is still lag behind world's standard by 20 years at least.
Tell me that the Chinese made breakthrough in engine tech when the JF-17 can use Chinese engine instead of Russian's - pretty much the Russians can kill-off Chinese competitions by not selling the engines the Chinese made jet fighter needs.
This is a world of business, my friend. Russia's engine makers are independent entity that provide engines to their Sukhoi companies, MiG companies, etc. And by selling engines to the Chinese or the Russian are the same in term of business. Thus engine seller will not actually stop selling engine to China if China would so much as to request.
And yes, China made engines might be outdated when compared to the highest level of western engines, but also note that not all countries in the west could produce their own engines too.
The fact here is... Russia would not stop engine export to the Chinese unless the Chinese planned to use these engines to build aircraft for a third party country. However this could be easily solved if the purpose of the engine import from China is made known to Russia first, and that Russia might have a piece of that pie, I don't think the Russian would very much care for it.
this type of example had been around in many industries. In the photography industries the popular Nikon camera are using Sony's CMOS sensor. and Nikon bought these sensors for their own use and stuff like that so it is alright with Sony. However if one day Nikon after buying a batch of sensor from Sony, decided to build cameras for (lets say, Canon) without Sony's prior acknowledgement... then you will see a big lawsuit in place.
From the abovementioned example, if it was not in the contract of China and Russia between the sales of engines which will include selling of these engine fitted in the aircrafts to a third party country, Russia will sure jump. But if Russia knew and acknowledge this, then there will be no reason for anything or actions.
My point here is Russia would not stop any engine export to China as long as they have a piece of the pie in whatever the Chinese wanted to do with these engines.
And it is also noted that while the Chinese's engines doesn't seemed to be fitted into much of their advance fighters, it doesn't necessary mean that these engines are no good. It might just means that the engines are still too costly or that there are still some bugs to settle or root.
And at present moment since the Russian will not actually stop exports of their engines to the Chinese, why don't the Chinese continue to use these and wait a while longer till the Chinese domestic engines are more ready?
