It is not me who wrote those I just posted the article But you are only half right .Certainly economic play a large role. But I believe priority is even a bigger determination why only now China decide to bolster the navy.
For a long time Soviet Union is a much larger menace I would even call it a mortal danger. Being so close to the heart land of China and bristle with nuclear bomb . China has no choice but pouring money in expensive nuclear weapon and the missile that go with it. Next come the army that will take the brunt of any Soviet advances toward Manchuria. Facing 2 front war she has to take priority.
Now that the border with Russia is stabilized, allow China to redirect her resources toward the sea, as the economy demand China to safeguard her SLOC. At the same time this is coincidence with China advance in heavy industry , shipping and electronic. Navy is more technology intensive than army. Building tank is much more easier than building a destroyer.
So I say there is more than economy It is confluence of rising defense budget, geopolitics consideration, maturing industrial base and changing trade pattern, all of those contribute to surging PLAN.
It has more to do with money, production capacities and priorities.
USSR died 20 years ago and with it, the clear and present threat to China's northern border, meanwhile the significance of priorities from the seas rises, yet like everything else China is behind the curve by more than 30 years, yet with too little money to throw at the problem. It took a good part of the last 20+ years to catch up on the production capacities and capabilities, and only after 1999 that the budget problem being solved.
So, PLA as a whole can't improve everything as the same time, for the PLAN in particular the priorities goes to its principle combatants, only after 2010's then they got their hands free to deal with something long relegated to the backburner - the workhorse units, and in this case, the 056 class corvettes.
For the Chinese, fielding multi-role corvettes like the 056 is long time coming, especially given the PLAN's current and mid-term mandate focusing on the "1st island chain" region, where 037 series are too outdated if not too small for the job, and 054A FFG are too large if not overkill unless in full-blown war.
The naval problem in the South China Sea is always there, alas got more nasty in the last decade or so, that's why the South Sea Fleet always got the priority in fielding the definitive serial production ships - eg. 052C DDG and 054A FFG - while the supposedly powder keg direction like Taiwan-facing East Sea Fleet and North Sea Fleet got all those stop-gap ships.
