As China prepares to field its new strategic bomber, the age of the US qualitative edge in military equipment comes to an end. China has closed the technological gap with the US and is preparing to bound ahead.

A report published in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in May last year raised the possibility that the Chinese military might be set to officially unveil its new stealth bomber, the Xian H-20, at the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2020. The unveiling did not occur as planned, with the air show being cancelled "due to global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and out of consideration of participants' health, travel convenience and the quality of the event," according to the city of Zhuhai webpage. However, the fact that the existence of the H-20 bomber, and its advanced stage of development, was published in the SCMP, the long-time paper of record in Hong Kong with close ties to the Central People's Government, gives the story credence, despite the lack of any physical manifestation of the bomber.

The SCMP story must be considered when evaluating recent western press reports suggesting that the H-20 might be ready for operational deployment five years in advance of previous projections by the US Department of Defense, which in 2018 noted that "China is developing a stealthy, long-range strategic bomber with a nuclear delivery capability that could be operational within the next ten years" (suggesting an initial operational capability sometime around 2028.) Speculation about the imminent appearance of the H-20 was hastened by the publication of computer-generated images in the Chinese magazine Modern Weaponry, which is run by the state defense corporation China North Industries Group, Norinco.