This still seems to be a rather confused subject of which little reliable info is less available than the contradictory info.
All you posted sounds logical, but this website
http://www.airwar1946.nl/whif/L46-chinjet.htm - claims otherwise and that there was quite operational communist air force in China by 1946 which was equipped with a large number of Yak 9 fighters (in article it is stated that La 11 were also delivered, but more likely La 5 or La 7 at that time). And in 1947 they received even jets like Yak-15 from Soviet Union and with Yak jets they wiped the Nationalist piston-engined fighters out of sky!
It does not sound to me just flying schools and some completely ragtag thing with almost all planes grounded due to lack of spare parts and pilots. But perhaps the whole web thing is a bug or daydreams for modellers?
I have also read a series of articles of Anatoli Demin (Soviet fighters in the Sky of China) - if focuses on the Soviet support to ROCAF but there is mention that first communist Chinese airmen were trained in Soviet Union already by 1930īs. Of course it does not mean anything in practice if they did not get planes to fly. During the Sino-Japanese war I have not read from any source that communists would have been active in aerial warfare. Perhaps Mao or other bosses had some private or liason plane for their personal use.
The whole history of communist air force in China before 1949 would deserve some web article, which is based on some solid and profound study taking in account all the available sources and weighing carefully what is true info and what is misinfo. To me it looks now like a history of almost complete nonexistence before the year 1949 ("mainstream view") but with contradictory info around (varying from: they had practically nothing before 1949! - to: they had lots Yaks and even jets by 1947!).