Okay there are some bad takes here which I need to correct.
Basically yes. Just look at what happened with Rafale sales.
Not that this matters. China is not offering the J-20 for export any time soon. Probably never.
The export success of Rafale was marginally related to its use in conflict (namely Libya), however more importantly, as a program and aircraft it was also successful and offered certain capabilities (like an AESA) that other competing eurocanards didn't at the time.
Combined with France having less political strings than the US and Europe do with their weapons offerings, is it really a surprise that the Rafale eventually saw export success, regardless of whether it bombed Libya or not?
No. unlike Rafale, J -20 can use AI and computer simulated war situations without having to go to war, yet! Again, J -20 is a trump card and China will never export its top notch fighters to anyone, and for any money.
This is confusing and a bad take.
There is nothing about AI, J-20, or Rafale which would prevent AI from simulating how Rafale might perform in XYZ scenario.
Similarly there's nothing about J-20 inherently that would enable it to be simulated more easily than Rafale.
More importantly, as other people have written, flying a few bombing missions over a nation with minimal obsolete air defenses with massive force multiplier support, is a very poor way of trying to demonstrate serious combat capability to customers who are knowledgeable.
Performance in large scale high intensity air exercises is arguably far more useful.
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.... Now it is 100% correct to say that J-20 will not be offered for export for a long time -- perhaps never. Everyone here should agree with that.
But other such takes written above are too simplistic and logically flawed.
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I would also challenge everyone here as to why they care about export customers for Chinese fighter aircraft.
China is not Russia -- its own domestic aerospace industry does not rely on external customers for domestic industry advancement let alone survival, and certainly do not push high end air and naval capabilities for export in the way Russia has done.
Furthermore, China is not the US -- it doesn't have an expansive alliance system (by design) which it can push large numbers and types of its own domestic fighters to for profit and for geopolitical alignment.
The only reason to be interested in Chinese export sales for its fighter aircraft is for the sake of novelty and reviewing what domestic capabilities can be inferred from what they offer for export.
