China Gets Closer to H-20 Strategic Stealth Bomber's First Flight

China is planning to conduct a flight test of an "important type of aircraft that has crucial strategic and historic significance," which several state-owned media outlets alluded to the H-20 strategic stealth bomber, the country's worst-kept aviation secret.
Ge Heping, Party chief of the Chinese Flight Test Establishment under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), referred to the upcoming flight test at a meeting on Tuesday to with personnel involved in the upcoming test, the media reports said citing a press release from the Establishment.
Ge urged all personnel involved in the development of the aircraft to fully realize the "extreme importance of completing this mission," according to the report.
Neither the report nor the press release revealed the nature of the aircraft nor the expected date of the flight test.
Several state-owned media speculated that the aircraft Ge Heping was referring to is the "long-rumored H-20 strategic stealth bomber," as only a strategic weapon deserves the description of "possessing strategic and historic significance," (in the words of Ge Heling).
An aircraft with a flying wing design looking similar to the American B-2 Spirit was revealed in a Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's recruitment video in January 2021. Commentary accompanying the video described it as the "next-generation, long-range strategic stealth bomber."
Given all of these official hints, the speculation from the public that the new aircraft could be the H-20 makes sense, but it might just be an over-interpretation, a Chinese expert who tracks China's aviation industry development told the Global Times on Thursday, requesting anonymity.
On another note, unnamed experts interviewed by Global Times speculated that the upcoming aircraft could also be the J-35 carrier-based stealth fighter jet which are urgently needed for the newly launched, Fujian aircraft carrier.