The production-grade variant of the CS/LS5 sub-machine gun was first introduced at the 2012 edition of the CIPATE – the “China (Beijing) International Exhibition and Symposium on Police Equipment and Anti Terrorism Technology and Equipment” held yearly in the capitol of the People's Republic of China.
Its early prototype had been already showcased at the 2009 edition of the same exhibition as an attempt to create a “Sub-machine gun for Police” that would constitute a counterpart to the well known Heckler & Koch MP5 for the Chinese military and law enforcement community as well as to those Countries – mostly in Africa and in south-east Asia – that purchase the bulk of their armaments from the Chinese arms industry.
The CS/LS5 is manufactured by Chongqing Jianshe Industry Co., Ltd., a private-owned company whose military-oriented products are distributed globally by the State-owned Norinco group; however, a semiautomatic, sporting-oriented variant of the CS/LS5 sub-machine gun, dubbed the SMG9, is also manufactured in China by the SDM - Sino Defense Manufacturing brand and imported exclusively in Europe by the Italy based Prima Armi S.r.l. company.