From the founding war period all the way until after the conflict with Vietnam, China held a strong belief that individual firepower lay in the soldier’s ability to shoot accurately rather than in the density of fire.
There were several reasons for this view. First was their preference for heroism, measured by the ability to hit the target with every shot. Second, due to the large size of the army and its generally low level of training, they believed issuing too much ammunition would be wasteful; fewer rounds would encourage careful aiming, and longer rifles could still be used with bayonets. Third, Chinese military doctrine at the time was still influenced by World War II, when squads were primarily equipped with bolt-action rifles and only partly with submachine guns.
This type of organization meant that the AK was called a “submachine gun” because it was originally intended to replace submachine guns on a one-to-one basis, and was therefore classified as a squad-level automatic weapon.