Oh, I should probably check those numbers, too.
Let's see here… PRC population is something like 1.2b, not 1.5b. Only a quarter of the population is of military age and divert-able into the military instead of back home producing new airplanes and carriers and missiles, etc, for 300mil under arms. Let's split that between the 4 branches, for about 75mil in the Navy.
A Queen Elizabeth-size carrier needs a crew of about 1200 between hull and air wing at a minimum, could be as many as 3000. Then they need carrier escorts, call it 6 ships, each with a crew of 300-600, average of 450 per escort. So each carrier group represents about 3900-6000 people. Probably on the high end, but that's not an unreasonable number. 75 million divided by 6000 is 12,500 such carrier groups.
At 10 torpedoes per carrier group (one per escort and 4 per carrier), that's 125,000 torpedoes needed. Guess the US will have to restart the production line, since we only have a little over 1000 Mk48 torpedoes.
Of course, then we get into the nasty detail about how much that naval production program would cost China. The QE-class carriers are horribly over-budget, but they do provide a decent ballpark for hull costs of that size, as do the America-class LHAs. We're probably talking $3 USDbillion per carrier, and $300 USDmillion per escort (It's not the hulls, it's the electronics inside that costs so dang much). Call it $5 USDbillion, plus planes. 40 Su27s (or whatever the Chinese clone is) per carrier comes to about another $3 USDbillion. So, $8 USDbillion or so per carrier group.
How many of those will the average Chinese peasant be willing to pay for? (For what it's worth, I kinda expect China to field some serious carriers. Eventually. Probably at least 3, more likely 6-12. Eventually, because such things are expensive and you don't want to build many of a bad design)
Remember how I said that 10 torpedoes will kill a carrier group? Well, the top-line Mk48Mod7 CBASS heavyweight torpedo costs about $4 USDmillion each. So, that $8 USDbillion dollar monument to being a first-world nation can be destroyed by something that costs less than 1/8 of the total. If you just compare the weapons, well, that's 1/200 the cost. 688s, the Seawolves, and however many Virginia-class boats we end up do change the calculus a bit.
But if the Chinese want to put carriers out there, they need to get really good at keeping submarines away from said carriers. Because bubbleheads like me see a flat-top and visions of Navy Crosses and Presidential Unit Citations dance in our heads, not to mention the Submarine Combat Patrol Pin (which hasn't been awarded since 1945).