So basically the less than 10 years years between F-CK1 entering service and Su-30 MKK. And still they did not have the AWAC or tanker capability required for an actual expeditionary air force.
I have to say though, Deng and Jiang were useless for the military and allowed too much corruption to happen. Them defunding the military was the actual cause of Tiananmen, they made purchases like 3rd world military dictatorships (apparently because Su-27 impressed Jiang at some airshow) and it took Hu and Xi almost 20 years to climb out of the hole.
They did have E2 Hawkeye and also purchased PAVE PAWS in 2000 (It was merely delivered way behind schedule and became relatively less useful as a result)
No they do not have Tanker, but the pretense of striking back at the mainland was already dim even with a slight technological edge.
Deng and Jiang were committed to economic development over military. They didn’t defund the military as much as started reforms by divesting commercial ventures from the military. With the opening up to the world, this was a lot of potential money.
Su-27 was not some third world thing, this was a very conscious choice made by the military leadership. Russia wanted to sell the already widely exported MiG-29 to China at the time, but the Chinese leadership was unimpressed with the short range, weak radar, and reliance on ground control. The PLAAF wanted the Flanker. Russian leadership was still wary of selling their top fighter at the time since relations were only recently reestablished. According to the story, the Korean War veteran PLAAF general of partial Russian heritage spent many nights drinking with the other side to get the deal done. Also to note, this was the first time Su-27 was exported outside of USSR.
I forget the names and all the exact details, but this you can find most of the details here if you look. I believe there was a book too.
