Based on forum discussions, in-game data, and what we know about the developer, the short answer is: most players believe Chinese vehicles are deliberately underperforming, especially at top tier — and this isn’t just “balancing,” it feels intentional. A minority disagree, arguing Gaijin screws over everyone equally. Here’s the breakdown:
The majority view: Chinese vehicles get singled out, and it’s been going on for years
This is the dominant opinion, and players back it up with specifics:
Stat padding and double standards
The Chinese autoloader was set 7.5 seconds slower than the Soviet T-72’s — same system, different treatment. (Gaijin eventually changed it, but the initial implementation was clearly skewed.) Chinese APFSDS pen values were tuned to land just below the Soviet 3BM42, which conveniently keeps them a step behind. The J-10C was given an early-production WS-10B engine that was barely produced in real life, rather than the engine actually fitted to the aircraft. The Type 96 and its derivatives have been nicknamed “sieve tanks” by the community — their armor modeling is riddled with artificial weak spots. The VT-5, a modern MBT, can supposedly be penned frontally by a 12.7mm, which is just not real.
Top tier is where it hurts the most
Chinese top tier vehicles consistently take the worst of it. Mid and lower BRs still have issues, but they’re manageable. The real problem is that Chinese vehicles tend to ship broken — released with glaring gaps in their modeling that take years to get addressed. Turnaround time on bug reports and buff requests is absurdly long compared to other nations.
Nerf proposals fast-tracked, buff reports rejected
Community-submitted nerf reports for Chinese vehicles get approved quickly. Meanwhile, reports requesting performance corrections — restoring armor values, fixing round penetration, etc. — routinely get rejected on grounds of “classified” or “insufficient evidence.” Other nations regularly get stat bumps approved off a handful of photos. The Type 99A’s armor weak spots and autoloader speed issues sat unfixed across multiple major updates. Some Chinese nerfs with zero documentation behind them got pushed live without a second thought.
Domestic designs punished, license-built copies get a pass
Chinese-developed vehicles like the VT-4 and ZBD-04A launched underpowered across the board — mobility, protection, firepower all below what you’d expect at their BR. Meanwhile, Chinese vehicles derived from Soviet designs, like the J-11B, are modeled at normal or even slightly generous stats. If Gaijin built it first and China copied it, it’s fine. If China designed it themselves, expect it to be a mess.
The minority view: it’s not China-specific, Gaijin just hates everyone who isn’t Russia
Some players push back on the “China is being discriminated against” framing. Their argument: Gaijin doesn’t single out China — they give every non-Soviet tree the same treatment. US, France, Germany, they all get debuffed at top tier. China isn’t special here; they’re just one more victim of Gaijin’s pro-USSR balancing philosophy. The pattern is “Soviet favoritism” across the board, not targeted discrimination.
A third perspective: things have gotten slightly better, but the root problems remain
A handful of players acknowledge that the Chinese tree is in a better spot than it was a few years ago. It’s not unplayable. But the gap between real-world performance and in-game stats, and the double-standard treatment on buff/nerf reports, hasn’t fundamentally changed. Progress exists, but the structural issues are still there.
Why does this feel worse for Chinese players specifically?
Gaijin is a Russian studio, and Soviet vehicles have always enjoyed better performance restoration, more frequent buffs, and slower nerfs than anything else in the game. That’s the baseline. Against that backdrop, every Chinese vehicle underperforming starts to look less like a mistake and more like a pattern — especially when Chinese domestic designs get hit harder than license-built Soviet derivatives. The frustration isn’t just about bad stats; it’s about the consistency of it.
Bottom line: Chinese vehicles are genuinely undertuned in a lot of areas, and the slow-to-fix, fast-to-nerf treatment is real and documented. But the underlying cause is Gaijin’s broader strategy of boosting Soviet vehicles at the expense of everyone else — not a specific agenda against China. It just hits the Chinese tree harder because so many of its top-tier domestic designs get flagged as targets, which is why “discrimination” is the word the community keeps landing on.