The Type 95 automatic rifle () or QBZ-95 is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured by Norinco, and issued since 1995 as the service rifle for the People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police and various paramilitary law enforcement agencies in the People's Republic of China. The rifle's designation "QBZ" stands for "'light weapon' (Qīng Wŭqì)—'rifle' (Bùqiāng)—'automatic' (Zìdòng)", in keeping with the coding standards of the Chinese defense industry. The QBZ-95 is the flagship of the Type 95 gun family (95式枪族), a family of firearms sharing a common receiver design, which includes a standard rifle, a carbine and light support weapon variants. It fires the 5.8×42mm DBP87, an indigenous intermediate cartridge. An export version chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO, the QBZ-97, is used by various countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Africa. Development The Chinese military started to develop small-caliber weapons in 1971. The Type 87, a modification based on the Type 81 assault rifle, was developed in the 1980s and entered limited service in 1987. The Chinese military continued to search for a new small-caliber design after Type 87. Bullpup configurations were also experimented with in the early 1980s, resulting in the WTC-1 and WTC-2 bullpup prototypes in 1983 and the Type 86 bullpup rifle in 1986. In 1989, the People's Liberation Army requested that Norinco develop a new family of small-caliber firearms with improved reliability and accuracy, adaptability to different roles, and configurability to different tactical applications. Duo Yingxian, who is credited for the design of QBZ-95, was recruited to serve as the project head in 1991. He was given four years for the development. Two years were spent on the design, alongside two years of field tests. Initial production started in 1995. The QBZ-95 was first observed outside China on 1 July 1997, when the United Kingdom transferred the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. It is a modern weapon system in a bullpup configuration, where the weapon's action and magazine are located behind the grip and trigger assembly. The weapon was designed to replace the standard-issue Type 81 assault rifle. The QBZ-95 had replaced the Type 81 in frontline units by 2006, and is gradually replacing it in second-line units and the People's Armed Police. An improved version called the "QBZ-95-1" was first seen undergoing trials in early 2010. The first formal public display of the improved version was with the