Only 4 modified Y-8 are in current service known here as ZDK-03 AEW&C,no Y-9 are in service.
Y-8 is comparable to C-130 in payload capacity whereas Y-9 is more comparable to C-130J.
The best western replacement for C-130 is C-130J or A-400M.
Chinese is Y-9 or Y-20,Russian IL-76.
Or you can...
The main difference i can spot between PAA Zulu's and Chinese Zulu's is that the PLAA's zulus don't have the Armour tub for pilot protection and secondly PLAA's zulus is not fielding HMDS,at least in the pics posted above.
Cold war sub veterans might want to disagree on your statement on "Sub warfare being non-existent post ww2".
Now coming back on topic:
Sub was chased out of pak waters,it was detected while it was submerged for the past 3 or 4 days,it was more of a cat and mouse chase,as the 209 hurried making...
If our defence industry did just re branding it wouldn't had scored 500million$ in sales.China wouldn't let that happen.Tell me again how much defence exports iran has done (Houthis and Syrian rebels should not be included in the list)
Listen this is the whole scenario
The sub was being chased,the sub knew it was in trouble as it was surrounded by all 4 sides,so it had to stay under water for 4 days but the batteries were dying so to replenish the batteries it had to surface and was caught.