By my personal assessment, given prior conversations we've had in this thread about the possibility of an EMALS, we now know, presuming that what Ma Weiming says is accurate, that it's at a later stage of development than some of the more conservative assessments that have been discussed before, and that it's clearly moved beyond research. Ma's wording implies that they're working on something intended for operation and not simply exploration, and that it's unlikely they've only just entered this stage. If we piece that statement together with satellite pictures that claim an EMALS facility in Tujiating, and if that's indeed what those pictures indicated, testing could have been going on for as long as 4-5 years. Since those pictures show a facility without a runway, we can probably presume that testing hasn't moved to actual aircraft launches, just dummy weights.
Given that Ma has also stated clearly that whether the technology actually gets picked up is up to the PLAN, we can also infer that the PLAN has not yet committed to the technology. This could be because the PLAN is more conservative about capability and performance than Ma himself. Perhaps they want to see testing of actual aircraft launches before they themselves sign off on the technology and adopt/commit to it. A corollary to this could be that the lack of J-15s or the lack of a catapult intended airframe is serving as a bottleneck to testing. It could also be that the PLAN hasn't finalized the launch technology for the current CVN they're building, or that they have finalized the launch technology for that CVN but it's a STOBAR like the Liaoning, so they're not in a rush to procure the technology. If that's the case they might not have figured out the design of the 2nd CVN and whether it should have a catapult.
It could also be that the confirmation of an EMALS program does not preclude another successful program for steam catapults, and the PLAN is still deciding which technology to go with. It could be that the EMALS system itself is quite ready, but the systems around the ship that would have to go with it are not (IEPS? Electric Output?). Perhaps that reason ties back to the generator and propulsion technology to both or either of the first two potential CVNs. Steam catapults might simply be more attractive if the carrier itself were steam powered. Maybe it's a combination of all these reasons.
Regardless, I think the most important inference and takeaway for me is that the the EMALS program may actually be about as mature as it's going to be without doing actual plane launches, and the blocker may end up being either the PLAN itself or the other parts of China's CV program, rather than any developmental or technological difficulties. Also, that given how long it takes to properly build and fit a CV, if they're already potentially 4-5 years into testing it's entirely possible that either CV-1 or CV-2 adopts it and jumps straight to that technology, bypassing steam altogether. Of course, it could also be that POP3's rumour that the first catapult China uses will be steam comes to pass (interestingly how that rumour plays out could suggest things about requirements and decision making for the CV program).
My 2 cents.
