I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a semi-auto type 81, but apparently there were a very few imported into the United States prior to the (1989 I think) import ban.
The Type 81 in its non-neutered, select-fire form was the standard rifle of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). In frontline service it has been replaced with the QBZ-95, but the turnover is not yet complete, as China does possess a rather large army. The rifle does occasionally turn up in other places, most notably Sudan.
While it looks something like an AK-47 or AKM, the type 81 is somewhat different. First and foremost, the ergonomics look like they suck less. AKs have such wretched controls placement, such uncomfortable, squared-off furniture and so many sharp edges lurking around the gun that when shooting it one sometimes wonders if the gun was ever actually intended to be fired. It's so bad it's almost as if the gun resents you for using it.
The type 81 improves this sorry state of affairs by placing the safety and fire selector in the general vicinity of one's hand (the same cannot be said for the QBZ-95, which has control placement that somehow manages to be worse than that of the AK). The charging handle, alas, stayed on the right side of the receiver and does reciprocate. The rifle is said to have a last-round bolt hold, but I cannot ascertain whether there is any other way to lock the bolt back. Such a feature would be helpful for clearing various malfunctions.
Additionally the type 81 uses a different arrangement of the bolt carrier and gas piston. In the AK the gas piston is fixed to the carrier, presumably in the interests of having fewer loose parts to loose. In the type 81 they are two separate pieces, presumably in the interest of reducing the amount of mass in motion and therefore disturbance of the sight picture during shooting.
Also of note is the front sight, which is moved far back on the barrel to facilitate the use of rifle grenades. The extremely short sight radius cannot be helpful for accurate shooting, and this flaw is repeated in the QBZ-95. The type 81 does at least appear to have an aperture rear sight, but it is a very weird one, featuring a wide, horizontal slit rather than the usual small circular hole.
A few fairly incidental features seem similar to the Czech VZ58 rifle. The receiver cover features a very wide ejection port, although not quite so wide as the Czech rifle's. The placement of the ejector blade in the receiver suggests, however, that this type 81 ejects straight to the right, whereas the VZ58 ejects almost directly upwards (hot steel casings being launched vertically and coming down in unpredictable ways is fun fun fun!). The upper handguard likewise has no pretensions to being part of the gas system as it does in the AK, and serves merely to cover the piston. The way in which the pistol grip attaches to the receiver also appears similar to the VZ58.
This should not be taken as saying that the rifle is wildly different than the AK series, however. Indeed, so much is similar between the two that it is really only the differences which are of interest from a technical perspective. The bolt, bolt carrier sans piston, fire control group, return spring, and magazine arrangements all appear to be substantially based on those in the AK. The overall layout and external appearance is, of course, also very similar and one could easily mistake the two rifles at a distance:
Type 81 rifles
AK pattern rifles
But there is no possible way to mistake either for the QBZ-95:
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