I cant speak for military by any means. But yes I refer to Huawai NTE modems and vdsl cabinets that are way ahead of the west. Use of vectoring and general features and compatibility made them the choice provider for the UK until recent security issues led to a ban on new kit. The providence of their tech may well be questionable (again I am not educated on this), but their application and ability to scale and control cost is many years ahead of our own / Israeli manufacture (I mention as ECI is the next best I ever came across).
I dont believe this is an inherent superiority, but several factors from r&d to manufacture give them an edge in this market. I would wager they have put similar or superior resource into other areas of tech.
But this is stuff I know about. USA military is probably many leagues ahead of anything they admit to having. But my point is we should not think of China - a booming civilisation - in the same league as Russia which has been failing in everyway for 40 years.
All of it comes down to money.
Huawei offered cheaper prices. They also didn't care about stealing or using unlicensed IP when it suited them, which wpuld allow for better compatibility.
And then, of course, there was some greed from the other players like Nokia and Siemens. They'd charge higher prices for more features and compatibility, or try and tie you into their products.
Not that their greed was anything special. Huawei were just as greedy, they just went about it a different way. With a big dollop of CCP espionage.
Now as for China's military prowess? They are completely untested. It's unknown how many personnel they could field and for how long. And it's not known how they'd deal with keeping civilians content during a war, as they are by no means self-sufficient in food production (and even now in peace struggle to feed their population adequately).
If being shut in and, alledgedly, put into dormitaries with people who might have COVID is enough to provoke big riots, then a lack of food sure is. And it's not like the ethnic groups in China have completely given up hope. There are even still Cantonese separatists on the mainland.