The Type 81: Meet China’s “Knockoff” AK-47 (That Packs a Serious Punch)
Here’s What You Need To Remember: The Type 81 borrowed from the AK-47, but it proved China’s ability to design its own weapons from scratch.
In the 1980s, Chinas small arms were largely inferior to the United States and Russia. The PLA was mostly armed with the Type 56 assault rifle, a clone of the original AK-47, and the Type 56 carbine, a clone of the Soviet SKS. There was an abortive attempt to combine the characteristics of these rifles in the 1960s which culminated in the Type 63, an SKS-l…
