Anthony J. has recently completed this post on Chinese pistol caliber carbine conversion kits. This is his first post for TFB.

Pistol carbine conversion kits have been all over the place, but they are rarely adopted by any law enforcement agency. Except in the case of China.

Chinese police have adopted pistol carbine conversion kits for the tactical force for quite a while. After multiple terrorist attacks in the west of China especially the Xinjiang Ürümqi riots on 5 July 2009 and the 2014 Kunming attack, the problem of the police force was a lack of pistol training and inability to use the pistol efficiently in emergency situations.

Adopting more submachine guns such as the JS-9 used by Shanghai SWAT is not realistic judging by the police force. Even the SWAT team in Xinjiang is several times bigger than the Shanghai police, the cost would be massive. And the bullpup design will basically change existing training principles. Thus, the Chinese police force needed a new submachine gun badly. And what is worse is that by 2015 the Chinese police standard pistol QSZ-92 was facing production quality issues with both the pistol and the DAP-92 ammunition. Massive numbers were recalled.

Shanghai SWAT with JS-9 submachine gun

And suddenly, SWAT teams in China seemed to only rely on the Type-79 SMG as an operational submachine gun. On top of this, the standard police force was seen as inadequate with a service handgun.

GuangZhou SWAT ‘Thunder’ and their modified Type-79

The new police submachine gun’s development was planned, but the new gun wasn’t ready and the Type-79 which uses the high penetration 7.62x25mm Tokarev can’t replace standard 9x19mm rounds in any situation. Thus, the gap was created.

In order to fill the gap, increase the firing efficiency of the police officer who lacked training and to elevate the tactical value of the remains of QSZ-92 program, developing a pistol-carbine conversion kit is been picked as the cheapest option for the Chinese police force. Also, the pistol carbine conversion kit’s rifle-like appearance has a stronger visual deterrent to civilians is counted as an advantage, of course such ‘deterrent’ won’t work in United States, and maybe even cause the backlash in Europe.

Two companies have submitted successful products so far: GuardPro QW-1 from Guangdong and JingAnDun JAD-1 from Beijing.

Both of the products were field tested by Xinjiang SWAT outfits in mid-2015.

QW-1

JAD-1

Both of the kits are very similar in appearance to the APS pistol-carbine conversion kit with almost the exact same glass breaker, adjustable buttstock and FGG-S style folding grip. They only have some small visual differences. JAD-1 has more of an emphasis on security, it has a built-in GPS signal chip to prevent the gun from being lost by tracking the gun’s location. A very interesting Chinese police only feature.
On the other hand, the QW-1 kit has nothing too unique worthy enough to mention, but there is a thermal imaging optic being designed as the dedicated optical attachment for the kit called the QW-2.

QW-2 thermal scope

QW-1 + QW-2

Internal view of the QW-2 as shown.

The QW-1 kit used by Xinjiang SWAT, the pistol near the camera is the standard 9mm QSZ-92

The result is the Chinese police adopted QW-1 as the first pistol carbine conversion kit ever used in China, the actual number purchased is unknown, but is certainly a large amount. Chinese police don’t seem interested in the JAD-1’s GPS tracking ability. This might have been the reason it failed in trials since the pistol carbine conversion kit itself is difficult to actually lose in combat due to it’s increased size, and therefore such security is not necessary.

The kit during the test early 2015

Needless to say, this pistol-carbine conversion kit is mostly a copied design. The Chinese community doesn’t like it either, some call it a plastic toy for airsoft players. But with successful service and good feedback of QW-1 from the police force, we will be seeing new and original pistol-carbine conversion kits designed in China.

One of the unknown conversion kit design by TRGEAR

This new carbine conversion kit design is made by the Chinese company TRGEAR with PDW stock, angled foregrip and an AR15 style charging handle. In my opinion, it is probably one of the best looking pistol-carbine conversion kits available.

The new design is based on the service experience of the previous pistol carbine conversion kit used in the police force, focusing more on an ergonomic design. And the original 15 round QSZ-92 magazine now has an extended magazine base plate designed to increase the magazine capacity to 20 rounds.

With more Chinese private enterprise join the industry, sooner or later, we may see these young and new face hit the U.S Market.

But for the Chinese police units, the news isn’t good. Since 2014 the new police submachine gun program that was designed to fill the gap in police equipment has underdone some struggles. And the recently leaked new submachine gun from last year is suddenly unheard of..

We still don’t know when the Pistol-Carbine Conversion kit that is used to fill this crucial gap will be retired from service.