Top 5 Reasons that the Israeli Lavi is a copy of China's Chengdu J-10/F-13 jet fighter
1. According to GlobalSecurity, China's F-13 program started in 1971. By 1979, a child's wooden model of the F-13 showed the J-10's distinctive rectangular air intake under the fuselage and the distinctive J-10 spine. A 1980 toy model of the Chinese F-13 showed the distinctive tail of the J-10. Since the Israeli Lavi program was not initiated until 1980, the distinctive design elements of the Chinese J-10/F-13 preceded the Israeli Lavi by many years. This is the CHRONOLOGICAL argument. Which came first? The Chinese J-10/F-13 came years before the Israeli Lavi.
2. The FINANCIAL argument is that China's J-10 program is well-funded. Only a well-funded program could have developed all of the cutting-edge fourth-generation technologies for the fighter jet. Since the Israeli Lavi was on a shoe-string budget and canceled, the Israeli Lavi obviously benefited from China's well-funded J-10 program. This argues that the three Israeli Lavi prototypes could never have been built without Chinese technological help.
3. This is the TECHNOLOGICAL argument. For the sake of argument, let's assume the Chinese J-10 is a copy of the Israeli Lavi. If true then China would depend on Israel for further development of the J-10. This means the Chinese government would somehow find a way to keep funding the Lavi. The fact that China's J-10B is progressing without a concurrent Israeli Lavi upgrade shows that the J-10 program is independent of Israeli technology.
The death of the Israeli Lavi and the continuous improvement in J-10 technologies prove that the J-10 program was the source of the fourth-generation fighter technologies. Not the poorly-funded and defunct Israeli Lavi.
4. This is the HISTORICAL and EXPERIENCE argument. China started building jet fighters with the J-5 in 1956. China had thirty years of experience in building jet fighters (e.g. J-5, J-6, J-7, J-8, J-9, and J-10) by the 1980s.
In contrast, Israel had very limited experience in building only one prior fighter (e.g. IAI Kfir) in 1973.
China had almost twenty more years of jet-fighter design experience than Israel.
5. This is the HIGH TECHNOLOGY argument. Which country is more high-tech? Is it China or Israel? Clearly, China is the more militarily high-tech country. China built the advanced indigenous WS-10A turbofan jet-fighter engine. Israel has never built an indigenous turbofan engine.
Take a careful look at the CHRONOLOGICAL, FINANCIAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL and EXPERIENCE, and HIGH TECHNOLOGY arguments. It should be obvious that the Israeli Lavi is a copy of China's advanced Chengdu J-10 jet fighter.