Brumby
Major
I believe China has reach parity if not surpassed Russia in terms or packing T/R modules or minimizing T/R modules in AESA arrays. While there are multiple other factors involved, that would be one the biggest one in terms of effectiveness and quality.
I do not believe China has reach parity with the likes of Thales, Raytheon etc.
As with any AESA radar, cooling is also key .. the tighter and smaller it's packed the hotter it gets and like everything electronic heat is the biggest enemy. I do not know about advancement in radar cooling in planes but that goes hand in hand with building better AESA panels.
You cannot talk about AESA or even PESA w/o addressing their cooling. It's a vital component especially on fighter planes. That is almost as challenging as the AESA themselves.
Bottom line is both Russia and China has ongoing AESA development programs and unless we know the details, it is premature to assume certain conclusion. It should also be noted that aperture power ratings is an integral component which is driven by engine power. AESA whilst it has its inherent benefits, it is simply overrated in air to air engagement for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is almost suicidal to switch it on in a contested environment. It is liken to switching on a torch light in a dark room. Empirical studies on the first Iraqi war, tells us that 82 % of the air engagements were vectored in by AWACS rather than being dependent on the planes own radar. I would expect this trend to continue in a networked battlefield of the future. Additionally, the trend is towards sensor integration architecture vs traditional federated systems between radar and EW. APG-81 is designed from the ground up with this in mind. What do we know of the Russian and Chinese systems?