A common example of this difference is the ZT96A P with FY-4 at 10.0, same BR where in USSR you’ll find Kontakt-1 and Kontakt-5,
Same on earlier BR at 9.3 with ZTZ96 and T-72A, again worse protection.
In top tier VT4A1 can have the worse protection values between the WZ1001 and ZTZ99A but, out of topic, same mobility along with the other 3, while T-80BVM goes around 10km/h in reverse while the counterpart goes at 30-35km/h.
The only good point over Chinese MBTs is the ammunition that is slightly better.