Therefore, in the late 1950s the PLA Ground Force submitted requirements for a light tank which could be successfully deployed in the areas of southern China.

The development of the Type 62 light tank began at Factory 674 (Harbin First Machinery Building Group Ltd) in 1958.

The left hand side turret hatch also has a periscope vision block on top of it and is most probably used by the commander.

[2][4][5] Primary armament consists of 85 mm Type 62-85TC rifled main gun with fume extractor almost at the end of the barrel.

It is the same gun as the one used in the Type 63 amphibious light tank and can fire AP, APHE, HE, Frag-HE, HEAT, APFSDF-T and smoke rounds.

The Type 62 light tank is characterized by having poor accuracy, given the primitive optical gun sights that the gunner has to use and lack of a gun stabilizer (which differs it from Chinese main battle tanks), a fire control system and night vision equipment.

Also a 7.62 mm Type 59T anti-aircraft medium machine gun can be additionally fitted to left hand side turret hatch.

The armour of the Type 62 is so thin that any light anti-tank weapon (like hand-held rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers) can perforate the frontal plate.

The most famous unit to operate the Type 62 light tanks is the recon battalion directly attached to the 43rd Army HQ, Guangzhou Military Region.

The PRC supplied the Type 62 light tanks to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the 1960s and 1970s and took part in the Ho Chi Minh Campaign in 1975.

Based on the improvement programs after the Sino–Vietnamese War the Type 62 was found to be too lightly armoured and too poorly armed to be used as a normal tank.

Of the two hundred tanks which invaded Vietnam about half were knocked out,[citation needed] underscoring the Type 62's lack of armour and armament.

Since then the Type 62 has been shifted to secondary duties in Southern China, such as reconnaissance, fire support and combat with enemy lightly armoured vehicles.

[11] Some Zairian Type 62 were deployed during the last days of the First Congo War but they were abandoned by their crew without firing a shot.

[12] Still in service with the new forces armées congolaises in 1998, many were captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Army and the Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma during the Second Congo War.