“Nice vertical surfaces on that one.”
That’s reactive armor on the turret. It may be advanced enough that it is the main armor making the tank substantially lighter. There are advantages and disadvantages. Also, I suspect the Chinese are not as concerned with crew survival as they are with overwhelming the enemy with numbers. As Stalin said, “quantity has a quality all its own.” This approach is probably a tradoff in cost vs. survivability. We’ll have to wait for a war to see if they got it right.
To me....it’s the gun.....it’s always the gun.
I am sure the Chinese care about crew survival. With the one child policy they have had, they cannot get away with the old “human wave”.