According to discussions on the Chinese internet, this 'Frankenstein' tank appears to be Norinco’s latest effort to boost arms sales by retrofitting the basic Soviet-era T-72 chassis with a modern yet cost-effective turret. The intended market? Predictably, Africa and the Middle East friendlies.
The T-72 is a Soviet-designed tank known for its reliability and use in many "organizations" around the world. China also produced the Type 90-II series, "influenced" by the T-72 design for export, thus retrofitting the Type90/Type96 families of turret to the chassis should not be too much of an engineering overhead.
While there's no explosive reactive armor (ERA) noted in the picture below, I am sure they can be also mounted on later on, if there's budget left.
