In the 1960s, amid tense relations with the U.S.S.R., China came up with the concept of creating "frontier-covering forces." The main firepower of this formation was to be units with "frontier-covering tanks" in service. One of the projects for such vehicles was the BZ-75, developed in 1975 using the experience gained developing the WZ-111 heavy tank. While working on the turret, engineers incorporated the design features of the WZ-1224 project. No BZ-75 prototypes were manufactured.