#5.8x42mm

Back in May 2017, TFB reported about the  Chinese PLA possibly replacing the QBZ-95-1 bullpup with a “traditional” layout rifle. Today, two photos of the Chinese new standard issue rifle have appeared on social media. The rifle is likely going to be revealed on the October 1st during the Military Parade dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Is the People’s Republic of China about to be the latest nation to abandon the bullpup configuration in favor of the “traditional” rifle layout? That seems to be the word on the street since about September of last year, when Chinese news outlets and blogs online began publishing articles claiming the PLA had already selected a new rifle, which was set for “practical training” (troop trials) and service with the PLA Special Operations Forces before going on to replace the bullpup QBZ-95 and conventional QBZ-03 in both the PLA Ground Forces and the PLA Marines. The news articles themselves – some of which appear to be related to state-controlled media – included the header image of this article and the image below, suggesting that is the rifle that the PLA is set to adopt.

In my previous two TFB articles on the latest development of the Chinese QBZ-95 family of bullpup rifles, I mentioned that there’s a flat-top model in the work as part of the QBZ 95-1 Plus. Recently, the information on that flat-top model was reveled on the Emei Firearms website.

The Chinese QBZ-95 bullpup has been in service for two decades and due to its sheer production, over 1.65 million so far, it will be the most prolific bullpup ever built. I did a detailed write-up on the QBZ-95 for Guns & Ammo SIP in 2006. Since then, that article has been used by many writers and researchers as reference. However, there’s still some confusion and misunderstanding on the QBZ-95’s inner workings. I hope this will help clarify the matter.

2015 marks the 20th year of service for the QBZ-95 family of bullpup rifles. The original production model is now superseded by the current QBZ 95-1 model in early 2011. Together, an estimated 1.65 million total units were produced under both models.

I came across these photos, of the recent Chinese Indian war games, showing the QBZ-95 in use. Although they could be the QBZ-97 (5.56mm version), I cannot tell the difference.