During the Vietnam War, a large number of Chinese Type 56s were shipped to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to aid their armies - they were subsequently issued to the People's Army of Vietnam (it was not until later that it became standard issue for Vietcong guerrillas in the South). Production began in 1956 out of the State Factory 66, hence the designation of Type 56 for the year it entered Chinese production. One major country that benefited greatly from these Soviet assault rifles was the People's Republic of China, which initially received tooling and schematics to produce copies of the AK-47 (later the AKM). Due to their rugged functional reliability, durability and easy to maintain, the AK-47 is especially popular among guerrillas and other unconventional forces who may be subject to less training. As such, and in contrast to more sophisticated and expensive assault rifle patterns from Western countries, the AK-47 has become proliferated around the world through sheer numbers as a symbol of communism and resistance. Originally developed just after World War 2 in the Soviet Union by a team of engineers headed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, the AK family of weapons has become the most widely proliferated weapon in the world, with dozens of derivatives and variants created, manufactured and distributed to militaries and paramilitaries around the world.Īfter adopting Kalashnikov's AK rifle design in 1949, with its simple design philosophy aimed at high reliability and ease of manufacture and maintenance, the Soviet Union began looking towards supplying other countries and factions sympathetic to the communist cause with hundreds and thousands of these mass-produced rifles.
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