I disagree strongly. In fact, I think the exact opposite is true.
First of all, most serious PLA watchers do not base their judgement solely on government information. In general, government information tend to be selective and filtered, but usually are not blatant lies. They can also be cross-checked.
Secondly, the information coming out of China on most military development and achievement have generally treated with suspicion, downplay, or ultralight contempt. This is particularly true in the West. A lot of reactions are knee-jerk. Take J-20 for example, ever since its initial appearance, it was considered subpar, with horrible stealthiness, no real air superiority fighter but an interceptor, reverse-engineered from former Russia aircraft or even worse its technologies were stolen from the US. We had and continue to go through endless discussion and debates to set the records straight. While one can argue that China is the late-comer in advanced military technologies and therefore the burden of proof is on it, at least it just shows that Chinese military technologies have not gotten easy pass or less scrutiny or that people just accept what Chinese government claims at face value.
Lastly, as much as China is a late-comer in advanced military technologies, we have observed and accumulated decades of experiences of watching China's development and progress in the area (How many years has SDF been in existence?). A lot of hypothesis and suspicions have been tested, and indeed, a lot of glasses have been broken. While the Chinese are not exactly very transparent in the defense matters, it's also a very porous area.
In a way, I feel that your question or questioning arises precisely because China has made such huge progress and great strides in defense and defense technologies within only a few decades, it's almost unbelievable! Surely, it must be because the Chinese government has presented us with a "beautified, highly edited and pacified kind," you know, the one "a priori curated" by the CCP. We, the gullible and innocent PLA watchers, are just being easily fooled.
Or maybe, it's the person or people who are constantly doubting the Chinese or its defense development who should reflect on. After all, leave aside the relatively opaque military development, just observe the giant progress that China has made in their economy, industries and technologies simultaneously, which are so much more open, transparent and broader and yet they're still accompanied by the same never-ending doubt, suspicion and reservation. They're good mirror images of each other which are likely originated from similar psychology.
