Most of the press accounts of China’s test flight of its new J-20 “stealth fighter” took their spin either by gauging whether it was a middle-finger welcome salute to Defense Secretary Robert Gates during his trip to Beijing, or whether Chinese leader Hu Jintao knew about the insult beforehand.

What’s been missed in all this is that the military significance of the J-20 lies less in its stealth performance – about which little is known – but in its size. This is not a small, short-range fighter, but a medium bomber. It’s a big airplane and a big deal. As the Australian Air Power think tank reports:

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