Ping
Well, numerically they have more if you include their old 1960 vintage Ming diesel/electric boats..
But, if you look at the newer Songs (1990s), Kilos (2000s), and Yuan (2010s) diesel electric subs, and then add the six to eight 091 and 093 SSNs...it is not a greater number at all.
All of the US attack subs are nuclear attack subs...and all of the US nuclear subs are more advanced than the Chinese 091s and newer 093s. The Flight III Los Angeles boats are a generation more advanced. The Sea Wolfs and Virginias are two and three generations more advanced.
so...there is a bit of hype in this particular report.
Now...the Chinese are rapidly building up near technical parity in some of their surface combatants...and in fact, their new corvettes which are directly situated against our LCS, are more cable than the LCS they would have to face.
They are building new surface combatants at a HUGE pace and we need to be very aware of that.