China’s August 1st (BaYi) aerobatic team has long served as a public face of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, but their recent adoption of the J-10C marks a step change in how Beijing packages its air power to domestic and foreign audiences. The team’s precision displays are the visible tip of an industrial effort to turn a home-grown third‑generation fighter into a flexible, modern workhorse that can perform high‑end aerobatics and credible combat missions alike.
The J-10 line began as a domestically developed, single‑engine multirole fighter intended to move China from second‑ to third‑generation capability. The baseline J-10 and its A variant emphasized a canard-delta layout, greater thrust and short-field performance; they gave the PLAAF a new, more agile platform with improved survivability and strike range compared with older types.
Subsequent upgrades produced the J-10B, which introduced a redesigned inlet often described in Chinese coverage as a “clam-shell” or diverterless-type intake and a new passive phased‑array radar and upgraded avionics. Those improvements increased detection and multi‑target tracking performance and lowered weight, but production of the B appears to have been limited as further advances in radar and electronics enabled a clean transition to the J-10C.
The J-10C integrates more mature avionics and an active electronically scanned array radar, modern mission systems and an expanded suite of precision air‑to‑air and air‑to‑surface ordnance. Since the BaYi team re‑equipped in 2023 the type has also been used for international outreach, flying at shows in Malaysia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Thailand — a reminder that Chinese airpower serves both warfighting and diplomatic roles.
Military commentators in China argue that the switch straight from earlier J-10 variants to the J-10C reflects the rapid pace of domestic iteration: once AESA radar technology matured, further production focused on the C model to maximize combat effectiveness. The choice to showcase the J-10C through the aerobatic team is therefore both a demonstration of the wider aviation industry’s engineering progress and a deliberate effort to project a modern air force image overseas.
For international observers, the evolution of the J-10 family is a usable shorthand for China’s broader aviation trajectory: steady, iterative upgrades to avionics, sensors and weapons are delivering large numbers of capable fourth‑generation fighters that complement the smaller fleet of stealthy fifth‑generation jets. That mix matters not only for regional air power balances but also for export diplomacy and the global fighter market, where Beijing increasingly competes with traditional suppliers.