But the Type 094s, which carry China's most advanced submarine-launched JL-3 missile, are considered relatively noisy - a major handicap for military submarines.
The paper notes that the Type 096 submarine will compare to state-of-the-art Russian submarines in terms of stealth, sensors and weapons.
That puts construction on schedule to have the boats operational by 2030, the timeline stated in the Pentagon's annual reports on China's military.
Even if China's submarine force reaches technological parity, it will need to train aggressively and intensively over the next decade to match AUKUS capabilities, he added.
Vasily Kashin, a Moscow-based Chinese military scholar at HSE University, said it was possible Chinese engineers had made the breakthroughs described in the report.
Persons:
Jason Lee, Christopher Carlson, Carlson, Collin Koh, Koh, Alexander Neill, Neill, Vasily Kashin, Kashin, Greg Torode, Guy Faulconbridge, Gerry Doyle
Organizations:
Liberation Army Navy, REUTERS, Research, U.S . Naval War College, China Maritime Studies, U.S . Navy, Pentagon, U.S, People's Liberation Army, PLA, Reuters, Rajaratnam, of International Studies, New Zealand, Hawaii's, HSE University, Thomson
Locations:
Qingdao, China, HONG KONG, Russian, Asia, Hainan, South China, United States, Britain, Russia, France, Singapore, Soviet, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, India, South Korea, New, U.S, British, Western Australia, Moscow, Soviet Union, Beijing