Assumptions
Chinese are having extensive effort ongoing to catch up, but as can be seen in other areas of the manufacturing industry, stupid copy and reverse engineering is one thing, consistent high level engineering is another one. Catching up not only with so called specialists for hire as they have done for space application, but also build up a competent engineering and workforce, as well as crews provided with doctrines, which have taken decades to develop for the western and Russian navies. Silence of a ship has a lot to do with high standards in fabrication and proper maintenance, as it has to do with a good design stolen from others. The US navy is obviously keen to avoid funding cuts and therefor is prone to create the modern day equivalent of the non existing "bomber gap" of the cold war era.
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