Well, the PLAN is capable of entering a 052D moment for conventional submarines, but SSNs and SSBNs are more technologically demanding. It is all about reducing noise level, which has long plagued PLAN nuclear submarines. I think Dr. Ma Weiming proposed solving Chinese SSN and SSBNs' noise issue with nuclear-powered integrated electric propulsion combined with rim-driven propulsion.
He said that future Chinese nuclear submarines would utilize nuclear integrated electric propulsion.
He made no statement about rim drives and that was the community completely misreading the actual video interview at the time.
And I'm pretty sure he didn't say that the nuclear integrated electric propulsion would "solve" Chinese nuclear submarine noise "issues". There are many ways to mitigate noise from a nuclear submarine, and we can expect PLAN nuclear boats to have advanced in all of them. Nuclear electric propulsion would help somewhat, but if you aren't able to advance in all of the other domains, then you're really missing out on a lot of easier to reach fruit.
Newer reactor designs (with newer and quieter cooling/pumps), improved dampening systems, better materials, improved CNC and quality of manufacturing, better hydrodynamics design in general thanks to more modern computer aided design and simulations, larger pressure hull for more volume of sound dampening... Among others.
Those can all be done first without needing more exotic nuclear electric propulsion, and some of the above can be applied on new production variants of existing submarine classes (such as 09IIIB for 09III family)
But this is a very ambitious proposal because Ma and his team must first figure out all the materials needed to produce such system in the first place. Then it is about whether the current industrial beds are precise enough to produce the rim/propellers surfaces smooth enough to reduce noise. If not, more precise industrial beds would have to be developed. All together, they could take years, but should these technological hurdles be overcome, China would finally be able to match the US in SSN and SSBNs, surpassing Russia once and for all.
Again, the rim drive was never proposed by Ma to begin with.
