Analyst's note:  Interesting .... this is a lot of jet to simply "protect" an off-shore island belonging to long-lost cousins. Note also the comments at the end of this piece re the first anti-ship ballistic missile.

China has revealed pictures of its first stealth fighter jet on a Chinese non-governmental Web site of a prototype of the Chengdu J-20 fighter being built for the Chinese air force.

[....],"China has the money, they have the industrial expertise, they have the scientific base, the drive and motivation and of course the benefit of American research over 30 years acquired by legal or illegal means," one anonymous observer was quoted by a Time magazine blog site. "These enablers give China wide latitude in matching or exceeding American designs that are now 20 years old."

The photos show the J-20 with a canard-delta twin-engine configuration, diverter-less supersonic intakes and a shaped nose that is consistent with the use of active electronically scanned array radar, the Defense News Web site reported.

The design is viewed as similar to the Martin F-22 Raptor and the Sukhoi T-50 fighters and some observers maintain that the twin-engine configuration could signal use of the Russian-built Saturn 117S (AL-41F1A) engine.

Even so, the release of the J-20 photos follows comments made last week by U.S. Pacific Commander Adm. Robert Willard that China had reached the "initial operational capability" of its first anti-ship ballistic missile, the Dong Feng 21D.

The new weapon, the "D" version of China's DF-21 medium-range missile, entails firing the mobile missile into space, returning it into the atmosphere and then maneuvering it to its target. The deployment of the DF-21D is viewed as a potent threat because it will force U.S. aircraft carriers to operate further from potential hot spots in the Pacific. [....]"