Don’t you just love it when other nations have such grand successes in the realm of science, technology, and engineering? Isn’t it great when, all on their own without any help from anyone, a backwards country such as China can produce a battlefield transport vehicle that is far better than our poor American version? And, they did it without any espionage, too.
And if you believe that…
The Chinese “news” agency China View is reporting this grand success…
China’s homemade army vehicle outshines U.S. Humvee
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) — The “Mengshi (Warriors)” off-road military vehicle produced by Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor surpasses U.S. Humvee in 12 out of 15 major battlefield performance indices, chief designer Huang Song has said.
Use by the Chinese military force has proven that “Mengshi” overtakes Humvee in 12 indices, including the loading capacity andoil consumption, and are well-matched with Humvee in three other indices, Huang was quoted as saying by Monday’s Economic Information Daily, a Xinhua publication.
It took Dongfeng six years to develop the vehicle, which had undergone more than 200,000 hours of factory tests and more than 1.6 million kilometers of road tests before mass production.
The vehicle was formally equipped to the People’s Liberation Army in 2007.
“Mengshi” has also passed various environmental and geological tests, including airdropping, high altitude and extreme heat and cold weather conditions.
With 75 patents, the 1.5-ton high mobility vehicle met all military requirements, said Huang.
It also won the first class award of national science and technology progress at the 2008 State Top Scientific and Technological Awarding Conference here last Friday.
This was the first such award won by the auto industry in 22 years.
Isn’t that heartwarming? Here’s a picture that proves how vastly different the Mengfungshui is than the lowly American Humvee:

Now, the report above did go through a few drafts before it was just right to post. Here is the first draft…
For Glorious report of Better Chinese Humveeee…er Mengshi, we mean
Better Chinese testing agents have found that glorious Chinese Humveeee…er Mengshi, we mean, out performs lowly and badly made U.S. vehicles.
Unbiased Chinese testing further confirms that glorious Chinese Humveeee…er Mengshi, we mean, will always be better than capitalist pig American vehicle.
Chinese testing was performed without telling testing agents that they would be imprisoned in a hole so dark that no light will ever get in nor were they threatened that their organs would be ripped from their still warm bodies and sold on black market. Testing agents swore of their own free will that glorious Chinese Humveeee…er Mengshi, we mean, is best ever seen in whole world.
We are just better. Face it pigs. You are losers.
You rooking at me, American? I am only Chinese in the Room!
As you can see, just a few words were changed between the first draft and the final report above.
So, join me in celebrating this Chinese success story, won’t you? And they did it all by themselves, too. No “help” at all!
So grown up our little China.
Now, who in the American defense industry needs to be investigated and imprisoned for allowing an enemy agent to steal the Humvee’s plans?

Oh, come on; they didn't need to steal one.
Achance Monday, January 12th at 7:13AM EST (link)You can buy one in Hemmings Motor News every week. There’s nothing secret or special about a military HumVee. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. They bought one or stole one maybe and reverse engineered it. It happens every day.
The whole modern strategic bomber program in the old Soviet Union came from a B-29 that made an emergency landing in the Soviet Union. They reverse engineered it, and the B-29 was an epochal airplane technologically, and produced the Tu-4, the grandfather of the Tu-95 Bear.
In Vino Veritas
Do you
Warner Todd Huston Monday, January 12th at 7:45AM EST (link)Do you really think that all the high end military aspects of the Humvee appear in the civilian model?
I would think they don’t but then again…
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Not talking about the civilian model.
Achance Monday, January 12th at 8:00AM EST (link)It really isn’t a very technologically advanced vehicle. I know it makes a nice story that the Chinese may have gotten the plans, Hell maybe they did; Bill Clinton sold all sorts of stuff to thejm. But that said, there really isn’t anything special about a military HumVee, and there are lots of ex-military HumVees on the market.
In Vino Veritas
You're giving the Chinese an awful lot of credit....
rford Monday, January 12th at 8:02AM EST (link)What makes you think this Chinese knockoff has any of those “high-end military aspects”?
What's so "high end" about a basic HumVee?
Achance Monday, January 12th at 8:13AM EST (link)There isn’t a bit of technology in the drive train that is less then 75 years old. It is an interesting and very expensive assemblage of parts. In its original form, I dont’ know that it really did anything that much better than an off the shelf Suburban or Expedition except climb angles, and sheet metal changes would have fixed that. Yeah, a little bit better but at two or three times the price.
What I think the original HumVee represents is a change in philosophy about transport. Heretofore, the US had used lots and lots and lots of pretty low-tech, cheaply produced transport. The HumVee represented a decision to spend the money to use the “good stuff.” It wasn’t new stuff by any means, but it was pretty good stuff.
In Vino Veritas
I've seen it
johncaccamo Monday, January 12th at 8:06AM EST (link)the reversed engineered B-29 in Monino, outside Moscow…
Legend has it that the Soviets reverse engineered every single part identically, including the “boeing” cast into the rudder pedals and control columns…
but they never really figured out that whole “center of lift, center of gravity” thing… and they used thicker aluminum (making it almost too heavy for the crappy Soviet engines they used).
“75 patents?” I didn’t know one could patent stolen work…
The Russian copies also had
woodsman Monday, January 12th at 8:23AM EST (link)small holes in the wings at odd locations. Apparently, the plane they copied the design from had been shot in several places with small arms fire. The Soviets did not know what the holes were, so since Stalin said exact copies, they copied the holes as well.
Copying bullet holes?
CJB68 Monday, January 12th at 6:58PM EST (link)Nice to see that the mindset of the barbarian horde didn’t quite get bred out of the Soviet soldiers of the day…
Delusional and Arrogant. The 2008 Democratic Presidential Ticket.
Lead paint
maddog Monday, January 12th at 7:22AM EST (link)Their soldiers should pray (is that even legal there?) that the manufacturer doesn’t use the same paint as that used in toys destined for the US.
Unless...
mikefisk Monday, January 12th at 9:52AM EST (link)Unless the Chinese soldiers are busy putting Mengshi parts in their mouth and sucking on them, lead paint shouldn’t be much of a worry to them.
If they are, they have more issues to worry about than the lead in the paint.
“Once within the maw of Leviathan, degree of digestion is irrelevant.” - Michael Fisk
7.88, -1.97
Do Chinese soldiers make a habit of licking their equipment?
Raven Monday, January 12th at 5:45PM EST (link)Wow…
“Unlike cruel liberty that requires you to stand and take responsibility for your choices, kind tyranny requires only that you kneel and surrender your choices.”
So if a Chinese soldier
zuiko Monday, January 12th at 5:51PM EST (link)Chews on his vehicle every day for a few years he might ingest enough lead to lower his IQ… but then how could you tell?
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
So much for the idea
izoneguy Monday, January 12th at 7:44AM EST (link)we need the Big 3 to make our military vehicles.
We will just buy them form China!!!
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
You know nothing had to be stolen.
itrytobenice Monday, January 12th at 8:53AM EST (link)A small donation to the clinton Library would get you the plans for a nuclear warhead. Slick Willie probably gave them these specs for a blind date with a geisha girl.
The problem with America is stupidity. I’m not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity, but why don’t we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
Wrong country. (nt)
Raven Monday, January 12th at 5:46PM EST (link)“Unlike cruel liberty that requires you to stand and take responsibility for your choices, kind tyranny requires only that you kneel and surrender your choices.”
Some dimwit in marketing ruined the Humvee
scottbomb Monday, January 12th at 8:55AM EST (link)They were cool when they were the actual military version driving down the street. The civilian wannabe versions made today look like toys. They don’t even make the orig. version anymore so if you want one that looks like the kind GIs drive, then you’d better find yourself a military surplus auction.
http://www.HowObamaGotElected.com
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
Yep
Darin_H Monday, January 12th at 2:51PM EST (link)the new H3 is a Yukon underneath (much like a PT Cruiser is just a Neon). I’d rather have a Yukon.
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Old news...
roxer Monday, January 12th at 9:18AM EST (link)China asked GM to loan them a Humvee after a weapons show several years ago. The Chinese were extremely impressed with the vehicle. There were actually two Chinese companies competing for the contract. China never returned the vehicle and GM knew better than to use legal means to retrieve it. So much as for being greedy enough to provide potential future enemies with a vehicle that can be used as a weapons platform - so much. heh.
http://www.chinacartimes.com/2006/11/13/the-chinese-humvee-copy-eastwind-eq2050-dongfeng-eq2050/
“Where I stand does not depend on where I’m standing.”
–Fred D. Thompson, 2008
This must be what Kruschev meant.
CJB68 Monday, January 12th at 7:02PM EST (link)I suppose this is what Nikita Kruschev meant when he scolded us at the UN during a visit some 40-odd years back. To paraphrase, he basically said that we’d sell his Soviets the shovel they were going to bury us with. Always trust our contemporary corporate leadership to put profits above country…
“Yes, of course… go right ahead. We don’t mind.”
Delusional and Arrogant. The 2008 Democratic Presidential Ticket.
Sounds like it's in a slightly different class...
mikefisk Monday, January 12th at 9:49AM EST (link)…1.5 tons? Heck, some subcompact cars weigh that much…
Looking on Wikipedia, a US military Humvee weighs 5,200 pounds, or about 75% more than this Chinese knockoff. The Chinese were probably testing this more as a Humvee-shaped equivalent of a Spanish VAMTAC or somesuch.
Also, Dongfeng Motors, as far as I can tell, works closely with General Motors. This is less “ripoff” than “official bastardization.”
“Once within the maw of Leviathan, degree of digestion is irrelevant.” - Michael Fisk
7.88, -1.97
Yeah, "official"...
Warner Todd Huston Monday, January 12th at 10:35AM EST (link)Yeah, “official” for an ENEMY MILITARY!! Nice going GM.
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Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius’ Forum. It’s what’s happening NOW!
the weight class
Streiff Monday, January 12th at 11:15AM EST (link)refers to the load it can carry cross-country or on unimproved roads, not the GVH. That’s why the classic M35 2 1/2 ton cargo truck, the “deuce and a half” weigjhs about 6 3/4 tons
“A man does what he can and endures what he must.”
That's nice. So they're, what? 30? 40 years behind us?
Raven Monday, January 12th at 5:52PM EST (link)Let’s see…
It was finalised in the USA in 1979. It’s 2008 and the Chinese finally have it.
We already have a replacement in the works and already have the MRAPs in the field…
So, we’re 30 years ahead of the Chinese in military technology. That’s comforting to me.
What fighters and bombers were we flying 30 years ago?
What body armour did we field 30 years ago?
What are the differences between our military now and our military in 1979?
Yes. I’m quite comfortable with the Chinese having the Hummer now. Quite.
“Unlike cruel liberty that requires you to stand and take responsibility for your choices, kind tyranny requires only that you kneel and surrender your choices.”
Well, with Carter/Clinton-repeat in the White House
CJB68 Monday, January 12th at 7:07PM EST (link)What with Obama and his recruitment of Clinton White House leftovers and most indications of his policies going towards another round of Carter-era hand-wringing and rope-knotting, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese get another boost to make themselves a little closer to being able to catch up. We can thank the Housepets of America (i.e., welfare recipients, leftist intellectuals and disgruntled urban minorities holding grudges against the rest of us) for the mess that’ll bring us into.
Delusional and Arrogant. The 2008 Democratic Presidential Ticket.