Wow, your all so called experts in the field.
I'm surprised that you people think that India is rag tag military. Try explaining that to the Pakistani military or the PLA who backed down in 1987 when the Indians had equal amount of firepower. The first rule to a war is, don't fight one if you can't win. Thats where the PLA stands with India. Why do you think India occupies "Southern Tibet"? 90,000 PLA Troops get the drop on 10 000 Indian soldiers and border guards and you claim victory despite having to withdraw. Explain that from you Chinese textbooks.
As far as China's naval ambitions. They are certainly aggressive but it depends before whom. If it was a Japanese dystroyer, PLAN would back off. In fact they don't mess with the Japanese navy, reason? They can't afford to. The Japanese navy is superior in terms of training and equipment. They have more ASW assets and one of the largest diesel sub fleet in Asia. Unfortunatly, the Vietnamese navy has none of these advantages over PLAN. The are more for coastal defence which makes sense given the size of the country. On the bright side, Russia does not consider China as a friend or an ally. They may not be the Soviet Union anymore but Russia doesn't like the growing PLA, its a concern for them as well, which is why Russia doesn't sell anymore subs to China. Or any advanced offensive systems. The Al-31 is one example. The Russians will not sell the utilities to build AL-31 engines to China partly because the want to keep the Chinese aerospace industry out of Russian markets. With out a good engine, the J-10 will not be exported and the PLAAF will have rely on Russia for spares for their Flanker engines. This of course is another topic.
Are the PLAN capable of taking on the Indian ocean? Not yet.
Training wise the Indian navy superior, they have operated more weapons systems and have great naval tradition and war-time experience. Pakistan can attest to that.
Equipment wise, the Indian navy is very different from the PLAN. Despite PLAN's "Aegis" type missile destroyers they are far from.
The HQ-10 is based on tot technologies acquired from the S-300 system and the HQ-16 from VLS Shtyl. They aren't the same systems, but they certianly have similar performance. These systems give the PLAN air defense. Not really an Aegis system like the USN. They also have subsonic cruise missiles as well as couple of supersonic. The PLAN seem to bend more towards a defense role, but this is entirely due to the lack of air defense due to the fact they have no Carrier at the moment.
The Indian navy ships are usually armed with subsonic and supersonic cruisemissiles, as well as Barak air defence systems. Not to mention its sole aircraft carrier. The Viraat has more fire power than Indian Navy's western fleet!
If the 2 navies every encounter each other in times of war, it would most likily be the Indian Navy that finds the PLAN since they have the only Carrier at the moment. After firing off missiles, the Chinese have 80 percent chance to intercept the Brahmos. While the Indian navy has more than 90 percent chance to intercept anything the PLAN have and the mojority of the missiles the PLAN are subsonic.
If you want to compare ships let me know. Its not the numbers, that count, its the quality and Indian ships are much better armed than PLAN ships and will be for the next decade.
tried more adventurous 2 times in 70's and 80's and lost both in Sikkim. Communist are known for words and no action. You don't have courage to defeat any country. How you will fight ? with Su 30 MKK and copied one i.e J-11 and another copied of Su-27 against better Sukhoi 30 MKI with Brahmos. 
