Disadvantage:
According to the F-22P's history, The 053-series frigates is China's most successful export warship. To date, one 053H1 was sold to Bangladesh, two to Egypt, and four 053T/053HT were sold to Thailand.
Customer assessments of these ships were generally poor. The 053H1 (Jianghu I) ships sold to Bangladesh and Egypt were
used and had equipment problems. The
stabilizers didn't work, the ship either did not have air conditioning, or those equipped with air conditioning had to be used sparingly to save the generators. The 100 mm gun was hand-loaded and did not have a working fire-control radar. The SSM's were Chinese copies of the Soviet Styx missile, which was obsolete.
When Thailand ordered four new 053 frigates in 1990, China built them to the (then) latest 053H2 (Jianghu III) standard. Two were modified with helicopter decks in the back. Although the price was excellent (2 billion baht each, compared to 8 billion baht for western ships), the
Thai Navy complained of quality issues. The interior wiring was exposed and had to be re-wired. The ship's battle damage control system was very limited, with
poor quality fire-suppression system and water-tight locks. It's said that if the ship's hull was breached, rapid flooding would lead to loss of ship. The
Thai Navy had to spent considerable time and effort to correct some of these issues.
The harsh criticisms lead to many improvements in China's shipbuilding industry.
Source
A little update on the 053-series frigates:
- The first hull of the Type 053H a.k.a. Jianghu I frigate, Changde (509), was commissioned in December 1974. Production stopped in 1980, after 14 units.
- In 1978, an improved variant of the Type 053H was introduced, known as Type 053H1 and referred to by the NATO as Jianghu-II. 8 units were built, the 5th of which was sold to Bangladesh in 1989 (i.e. used). The 7th and 8th hull were built for Egypt in 1984 and 1985 respectively.
- The Type 053H2 (NATO reporting name: Jianghu-III class) is a modernised variant of the Type 053H, with a total of 7 hulls constructed between 1985 and 1993. The Type 053H2 was the first PRC-built surface combatant to have been incorporated with modern Western design influence. Four hulls (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th) were sold to the Royal Thai Navy, which received the first pair in 1991 and the second pair in 1992. Of the 4 only the last 2 are equipped with a helicopterdeck/hangar (like 063HT-H below).
- Single hull based on the Type 053H1 was built with special modifications (e.g. heli deck, hangar). Some indigenous and Western-made systems were also installed on the vessel for trial and evaluation. The frigate was designated Type 053HT-H by the PLA Navy, and was referred to by NATO as Jianghu-IV class. Construction began in November 1984 and she commissioned in December 1985.
- Referred to by the NATO as the Jianghu-V class, the Type 053H1G was generally based on the hull design of the Type 053H1 (Jianghu-II Class) but with improved weapon systems and better crew living conditions for its crew. The first hull launched in 1992 and commissioned in May 1993. The last hull commissioned in 1995. 6 units built under an emergency construction programme .
- The Type 053H2G (NATO codename: Jiangwei-I class) is the multirole missile frigate built by the Shanghai-based Hudong Shipyard (now Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard) in the early 1990s for the PLA Navy. A total of four hulls were built before the production stopped in favor of the more capable Type 053H3 (Jiangwei-II Class).
- The Type 053H3 (NATO reporting name: Jiangwei-II class) is the multirole missile frigate introduced in the 1990s as a follow-on to the Type 053H2G (Jiangwei-I Class). It is based on the hull design of the Type 053H2G, but with new weapon systems and sensors. A total of 10 ships were built for the PLA Navy between 1998 and 2005
Essentially, it is a fallacy to compare ships delivered to Egypt (1984, 1985), Bangladesh (1989) and Thailand (1991, 1992) with present day (2009) ships of the same lineage.
There's been tremendous improvement in China's naval shipdesign and -building capability (witness the newest ships). There have been successive improvements in these ships and in the associated ship building.
If quality was such a problem, and it didn't improve, then why have the Thai continued to order chinese ships for their navy (2x well armed OPV, 2x F25T frigate)?
As said "The harsh criticisms lead to many improvements in China's shipbuilding industry.", the fruits of which are visible in the Jiangwei II, F22P and the largest new PLAN units.
Really, there is no comparison between Jianghu II and Jiangwei II, let alone F22P.