When the communists took over mainland China in 1947, they switched to Soviet-pattern weapons, producing a number of Soviet designs using machinery, plans and technical assistance provided by the Soviet Union. Light machine guns included domestic copies of Czechoslovak ZB-26 and ZB-30, as well as the Swiss SIG KE-7 machine guns, also chambered for 7.9mm Mauser ammunition. Lesser known weapons were locally made copies of the Browning M1917 and Schwarzlose M1907/12 machine guns, made between the two World Wars in very limited numbers. Earliest of these were well known copies of the German Maxim MG 08, generally known as Type 24 machine guns, chambered for 7.9mm Mauser ammunition of German origin.
Up until the 1960s, all machine guns manufactured in China were of foreign design.
ABOVE: PLA soldiers practicing with Type 67-2 GPMG (front) and Type 81 LMG (in background).
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