just sold an early Sile, NY imported Norinco AKM-47S. Ive owned a bunch of Chinese AKs and IMO they are the best bang for your buck when it comes to this particular weapon system. I posted this on a local gun forum and am going to paste it here as to why the Chinese guns are so desirable...
"better triggers, receivers are thicker, 1.5mm vs 1mm on most AKMs as well as having thicker barrels. The Chinese AKs were made at factories (using the word factory loosely) that had a history of producing military grade weapons...80% of the AKs in the US were assembled or in some way modified by CIA (century) contractors...who often times just honey badgered the guns together. The Chinese guns (including mak-90s) were made from NEW parts and numbers matching upon importation...unlike once again the century guns that are mismatched parts from big bins of scrapped worn out rifles. On top of that they were blued and beautiful...about every AK you buy today has poop bbq black coating. And the icing on the cake is they don't make them anymore...demand for AK variants has been huge the past handful of years and the supply (of Chinese guns) is stagnant."