Beijing - An official Chinese newspaper has dismissed a report that the country used technology taken from a downed US aircraft in its own stealth fighter programme.
Chinese officials earlier in January staged the first-known test flight of the J-20 prototype stealth fighter that could one day challenge American air superiority.
The flight came during a rare visit to China by US defence secretary Robert Gates and caught many defence analysts by surprise, seeming to indicate that China was acquiring cutting-edge technology more rapidly than previously thought.
China says the plane is based entirely on indigenous designs, and the Global Times on Tuesday quoted an unidentified defence ministry official as dismissing a report saying China probably gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk shot down over Serbia in 1999.
“It's not the first time foreign media has smeared newly unveiled Chinese military technologies. It's meaningless to respond to such speculations,” the official was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's flagship People's Daily.
Calls to the defence ministry's spokesman's office rang unanswered on Tuesday.
The defence ministry has commented little on the test flight other than to assert that China continues to arm for defensive purposes only.
The US fields the only stealth fighter in active service, the F-22 Raptor, the successor to the Nighthawk. The US is also employing stealth technology on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while Russia's Sukhoi T-50's stealth fighter made its maiden flight in 2010 and is set to enter service in about four years' time.
The report comes one day after a US federal judge on Monday sentenced a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer to 32 years in prison for selling military secrets to China.
Noshir Gowadia, 66, who was born in India, was convicted in August on 14 counts, including communicating national defence information to aid a foreign nation and violating the arms export control act.
Prosecutors said Gowadia helped China design a stealth cruise missile to get money to pay the $15 000-a-month mortgage on his luxurious multi-million dollar home overlooking the ocean on the Hawaiian island of Maui. They say he pocketed at least $110 000 by selling military secrets.
The defence argued Gowadia provided only unclassified information to China. - Sapa-AP