I will simply copy & paste my reply on another forum, since the arguments by people who haven't read the original article seems to be the same regardless of where I go.
First with regard to the J-11B situation
1. They paid for ToT of su-27sk and royalty for 200 aircrafts, they produced less than that with the basic variant. They are not likely to get to that 200 aircraft threshold anytime soon.
2. Russians was not willing to offer an upgrade other than N-001VE + R-77, which was not acceptable by Chinese standard, so they decided to go with their own radar set and such
3. China is allowed under the contract to indigenize the entire aircraft, which is what they will end up doing.
4. China is not allowed to export the aircraft, nor do they have any intention to do so.
Since no one here has read the original article other than me, there seems to be a lot of misconception. Basically, Kanwa had one of its typical interviews with Sukhoi, which obviously always only tells one side of the story. And as all the Indians know, the Russians are the most honest negotiator and never go back on their word. So, it went something like this:
1. China wanted only 2 su-33s
2. Russia afraid of China copying, so they would not budge
3. China then raised it to 14, Russians still aren't satisfied, instead asking for a minimum of 24, because that's needed to keep their production run profitable.
Even from this, it's a typical negotiation, I don't see what the big deal is.
Let's put it this way, China has its own naval fighter program in pretty advanced stage. It's going to ready to make first flight soon. The only reason it needed even 14 su-33s was that the domestic program might not be ready on time. And more specifically, the naval airwing school needs some planes to start training. It's kind of risky to have a new aircraft carrier and a new naval fighter at the same time. But honestly, if the Russians don't supply su-33s, it's not going to stop China's program. They are just going to loose sales + revenue from servicing/maintenance after afterward. If we go by my current timetable of naval flanker being ready for flight testing and training by 2012 and achieving IOC by 2015, then that will probably give it about 10 years before the next generation of naval fighter for China should be developed.