The Type 81’s genesis began in the early 1980s. Around that time, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had been issuing their own indigenously designed and built Type 63 automatic rifle to soldiers.

Here’s What You Need to Remember: Despite its success, in the end, the Type 81 was still a stopgap rifle. What the PLA really wanted was a rifle in a new true intermediate caliber: 5.8mm. In the 1980s ...