China’s New Rifle is Worse than You Think

In 2019 China’s People’s Liberation Army introduced their brand new primary rifle the QBZ-191. The reason they switched away from the Type-95 takes us through Xi Jinping's larger goal of modernization and completely overhauling their entire infantry philosophy.

For instance The QBZ-191 appeared just 4 months before China announced they would also start manufacturing 1.4 million body armor plates. That probably doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize in the past PLA soldiers were never issued ballistic plates. Xi Jinping's sword just got a little sharper and his shield a little thicker.

Written & Edited by: Chris Cappy

The lightweight 6.6 lb qbz-191 fires a new version of their 5 8 by 42 mm intermediate cartridge at a rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute using a more reliable gas operated short stroke piston. Don’t get too distracted by the beautiful hardware that isn’t the real revolution here, we’ll see this is really all about the 4 new high tech attachments and changes to their fighting doctrine. But are the internet rumors that the QBZ-191 has poor performance actually true and Will Xi Jinping's overhaul of the average Chinese infantryman work? Fire a surplus round at the like and subscribe button and lets get started.

Task & Purpose is a military news and culture oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

#CHINA #MILITARY #ARMY

[FromPovertyToProgress]

It is always amazing to me how militaries will spend so much money, while ignoring basic equipment for their infantry.

[nova.exe]

Bro gains 10000 social credits when he makes the vid, but then loses credits after he mentions TAIWAN

[docm]

4:53 “Military spending has increased by 60% that’s more than double if my maths checks out” Average Infantryman trying to do basic math moment.

[tmzz]

5:00 50% increase is not doubling. A 100% increase is doubling.

[cf]

Mao claiming the existence of rank in a military is anti-revolutionary is the most Mao thing I've heard, and completely on brand for him.

[Krieguerre]

9:03 The US army had a very similar "no rank" structure right after the US Revolution, where officers of militia units were elected by the unit members. While there was technically a "rank" difference, the elected nature of the position meant US military discipline was lacking until the institution of a proper officer corps.

[ArsonalTech]

If some QBZ-191s make their way to the US, I seriously hope Ian McCollum and Brandon Herrera get their hands on one for review purposes, and Garand Thumb for review and entertaining LARP purposes.

[skyliner]

Fun fact about the keyhole, I have a nice T97 (Canada) with lots of upgrades that made it a pretty sweet platform. But I was also getting keyholes from about the same range (25, -100m) as well. Left me confused that maybe the gunshmith that threaded the barrel might have damage de crown in some way. But I finally got rid of the T97 and this video finally sheds light on this keyhole topic. It's a norinco stuff I guess

[Barbaroossa]

The reason for those bullets to be key-holing at such short distances is because they were training in a shoot-house with no proper backstop behind the targets, and concrete walls, so they switched their ammo from the usual metallic projectiles to riot-control rubber bullets to avoid ricochets. Since those bullets don't engage the rifling properly, they're only useful at short distances, because they keyhole badly.

[UHPhil]

The 3D-model at 2:44 is that of an airsoft gun. The loose part is the gearbox, the part in the middle is a gearbox with the handle attached, much like most M4 airsoft replicas do. So they'll probably release an airsoft model of it :)

[itshample]

The one issue that you would have to worry about for mass producing this new rifle is loose tolerances which can lead to a lot of heartache for regular grunts when they get the bad draw when handed their issued rifle. The keyholing could just be a production issue of early variants that could be fixed but China is a different beast and comparing western approaches to problem solving to China is like getting a fish to climb a tree. We have already witnessed a similar issue with Russia, with the west quietly being nervous and falling for the propaganda, expecting Russian soldiers equipped with decked out AK-12's while covering a T-14 Armata.
The real problem with cutting through the grease of propaganda when it comes to small arms is that the proof is in the pudding when only you can actually view a complete strip down of the rifle and get into the guts of the weapon so it is very hard to confirm or deny if the weapon lives up to expectations. Norinco has improved over the last twenty years but that reputation boost is reliant on the consumer market, not really the military market since China has not been in any proper wars to field test Norinco's goodies. It would be like taking the glowing review of a Canadian hunter with his Norinco rifle being applied to a peer-to-peer battle. Apples and oranges. Love the vids Cappy

[GymnopedieNo]

I was drawn in by your title, I thought you would go into detail about the mechanical design and construction of the qbz191 and compare and conjecture with the construction of classic firearms such as ar and ak. And what do I see? There is nothing objective about it.

[HeisenbergFam]

1:20 Cappy Wick is truly the special John Wick we didnt deserve, but needed

[ld]

Correction: If they named something Type 20, it means the year it was certified for service. For example, Type 56 (Chinese AK-47) was certified in 1956, and Type 95 was certified in 1995.

[jaycee]

Crazy how a mid tier ar15 w/ attachments costs more than the entire issued gear of a Chinese soldier😂

[stephensanford]

As former infantryman myself, I'd rifle looks pretty good. At least workable. It seems handy to shoulder, accurate enough to work. The magazine release would be weird for me, but I've never been a big AK fan. But for some training on it, it would probably work, and only be slightly slower than the push button things like the M4 use. All that being said, the PRC is figuring things out. A country making big warships to show the flag isn't necessarily a dangerous omen, however, when a nation suddenly dumps money into infantry, it means something else entirely. the PRC / PLA has been expanding their marines, changing their order of battle, etc. Here's what I would look for. I'd look for paint maker on the rifles, because when they figure that one out it means something. Just dumping new rifles into a unit is cool, whatever, but when each rifle is "Owned" by a specific soldier, that's when you can see how serious they are. Anyway, rifle looks cool, I'd love to shoot one.

[yae_]

I think what wasn't mentioned about the 800m range is that the variant of the QBZ-191 that could hit that distance is the DMR version, with more power and reinforced barrel, instead of the conventional rifle version

[dadforever]

During PLA's no ranking period, it is very interesting that the only way to tell between an officer and soldier is the number of pockets on their uniforms. Officers have 4 pockets, and soldiers only have 2 with no lower pockets.

[bountzee]

Jesus Christ the acting on Cappy is impeccable. I would watch a whole season of that.

[skyhop]

I've seen the blueprints for the rifle and there's a lot of clever features. My favorite feature is that it has numerous gas ports in the barrel at differing distances. This means the gas regulator allows you to select not only for energy when changing position, but dwell time too. People who design something this clever aren't going to make a barrel that keyholes.