China has depended on Russia for new aerospace technology since the beginning days of the People's Republic. Initially it was given freely but, after relations between the two countries grew rocky, China began to steal Russian technology and even sell cheaper imitations to states that had traditionally relied on Russian supplies. Even since Sino-Russian relations were again normalized, China has still abused the terms of agreements with Russia regarding proprietary technology. For the past decade, Russia has been understandably hesitant to sell China much of value. Recently, however, Russia has been willing to entertain the idea of selling its most advanced fighter jet to China. There are a number of explanations for why Russia would be willing to take such a risk, but ultimately it is because the risk is diminishing as Russia comes closer to developing even more advanced replacements.
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