China have been absent from military affairs for about 300 yrs, meaning China have not been a contributor to the science, crafts, and arts of warfare, not matter how much internet Chinese crow about Sun Tzu or the Korean War. But give credit where it is due.
Good => Excellent => Outstanding.
China's efforts at modernizing her armed forces, at the hardware front, have been borderline excellent-outstanding. We are looking from Desert Storm, where PLA leadership was gobsmacked, to today. So we are looking at 30 yrs of hard work to produce hardware that is with decreasing dependency on Russia. That is the weakness of most countries -- their defense must be imported. Those who can build their own can dictate first to their neighbors, then later others far off. The first priority is to build your own, next is to build qualitatively and China is catching up with the West. So to answer your question: Yes, Chinese hardware is good enough to create a credible deterrence.
But the greatest problem for the PLA is on the human front. I pointed this out many times and of course, the PDF Chinese dismissed it. They dismissed it because none of them ever served. None of them know what the military life is like. The problem for the PLA is human corruption, and it is STILL going on today. The worst is the selling of ranks and assignments. This type of corruption is like a cancer. It is deep, entrenched, and much more difficult to exorcise than the real medical cancer. There ARE, not just were, mid to high level officers who demands bribes from subordinates for advancement and favorable, read 'safe', assignments. There are flag officers who make millions from selling military favors. The few who were busted were sacrificial lambs by their peers. They got careless and too greedy. Those who escaped detection now devised better and deeper ways to hide their ill gotten gains deeper and further in foreign countries. The selling of ranks and assignments have incompetent and ill educated officers at all levels of the PLA, and their incompetency WILL manifest in a real war. No amount of shiny new toys can compensate for such bad leadership. Selling a rifle on the black market is not the same thing as selling a grade/rank. The rifle serve another master. The newly promoted officer still serves the PLA but this time, he is over his head.
