I like your metaphor, horse and buggies lol Again I still disagree with you. If we extend the metaphor, let's say 6th gen is a model T car from the 1900s.
The US has Next Generation Air Defense (NGAD) motorcar in development to replace the "horse and buggy" F-22 as a dedicated air supremacy buggy. We also have the B-21 Raider (more like a whole ass truck in this metaphor) rolling out now which is a bomber that's more advanced than either the F-35 "buggy" or the flying triangle "motorcar" that china has a prototype of and which nobody knows anything about performance-wise other than that it's triangular and can fly.
Also the one model of horse and buggy china has is still inferior to the far older F-22 that the US has had since the 1990s.
Something tells me that China isn't going to outpace the US in either production numbers or technical capabilities of aircraft.
Actually I take it back I don't like your metaphor. It would be accurate if the industrial and technical requirements between 5th and 6th gen aircraft were as different as that of a horse and buggy, but fundamentally that's not the case.
Both call for stealth technology, advanced integrated avionics, high performance gas turbines, composite material and titanium structures to meet strength/weight requirements, and advanced radar/sensors, all combined in a package that is both reliable and can be manufactured em mass.
The US has been demonstrating those capabilities for 30 years. China has obtained some of them (still lags in engine, avionics capabilities, and radar) and has only been able to manufacture aircraft with them at a fraction of the scale.
The Chinese aircraft industry is suddenly going to leapfrog the US on all of those features AND manufacture them on a great scale? I doubt that.