Q&A: Chinese Small Arms w/ Jason Clower from Type 56: The Story of China’s Army

My book “Pistols of the Warlords” is available through Headstamp Publishing:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/chinese-pistols

Today I am very happy to welcome Jason Clower as our Q&A guest. Jason runs the channel “Type 56: The Story of China’s Army” where he teaches the history of the PLA and its small arms, combat tactics, strategy, and logistics to a depth found nowhere else in the English-speaking internet. So naturally, today’s questions are based on Chinese small arms history…

0:01:00 – The PLA and the bayonet.
0:08:00 – How did the Great Depression impact Chinese arms production?
0:14:03 – Was the Type 63 abandoned before or during the Cultural Revolution?

China’s Deadly Self-Sniper Rifle, the Type 63: https://youtu.be/R6RqP1Wb2IQ
China’s Type 63 Rifle: Better Than an AK-47 and SKS Combined?: https://youtu.be/_-6_VXjMSoc

0:16:49 – Has China just copied guns for the past 100 years or did they develop their own things?
0:23:55 – How does Chinese production quality compare to Eastern bloc nations?
0:29:15 – Different arms for Chiang Kai-shek and Mao?
0:34:46 – If Jason could have one Chinese gun, what would it be?

Chinese FN 1900s: From Wauser to Browningsbrowningsbrownings: https://youtu.be/u0dInANbfDU

0:37:02 – What about the SKS-M with its detachable AK magazine?
0:41:45 – How did it go from Cultural Revolution to massive SKS sales to Western consumers?
0:48:21 – Could the Type 79 have been successful as a concept?

Curse of China’s Type 79: The Gun That Blighted Every Life It Touched: https://youtu.be/bNOFa5__QJM
Type 79 SMG: China’s MP7 At Home: https://youtu.be/dWIbsLxqBPc

0:53:18 – Allocating leftover Civil War era guns to the militia vs to foreign military allies
0:58:56 – Did any modernizers survive Mao’s purges?
1:03:15 – Why are all the guns “Type 56”?
1:06:24 – What’s the “Q” designation all about?
1:07:15 – When did China develop a unique national identity in its small arms?
1:09:36 – Chinese RPD use
1:13:55 – Jason’s background