The MIG-19 was the perfect model. Plus, if China could get its name on a modern supersonic jet (albeit one that "borrowed" its tech from Soviet engineers), it would be a symbol of its global power.

The MiG-19 made its operational debut in March of 1955. Soon after, the Chinese began to clandestinely develop their own reverse-engineered copy of the MiG-19, the Shenyang J-6.