had Soviet Union reached its peak which it didnt they would have
1 x CATOBAR the Ulyanovsk
2 x STOBAR the two Kuznetsov Class
4 x Kiev Class Flat Decks
2 x Moskva Class
2024 Chinese Navy close to
1 x CATOBAR
2 x STOBAR
4 x LHD
1 x LHA
8 x LPD
so I would say Chinese Navy have trumped the Soviet Dream Navy but Soviet certainly did come close
without going too far off topic Chinese Air Wing is certainly leaps and bounds ahead with numbers of J15
The Ulyanovsk was not a pure CATOBAR. It used a ramp like the Kuznetsov but added catapults on the angled deck which destroys the reason for an angled deck in the first place. You angled away the landing strip away from the launch path to facilitate recovery without impacting launches.
The Type 003 is far better by a wide margin. Same with China's STOBARs. They operate as pure carriers without the heavy anti-ship missiles that takes up the forward section of the hangar.
The Kievs operated Y-38 VTOL fighters which would give them an advantage over LDHs -- at least in theory.
But the EM catapult -- if speculation on the possible Type 076 is correct -- could end up on LHDs. This could mean the J-35 on LHDs. That would put China's LHDs far ahead of the Kievs.
In fact, if J-35 can operate off the Type 076 with the EM catapult, it would have an advantage over the VTOL F-35B operating off US LHD/As on range and load never mind the Yak-38.