China's Maritime Military Fleet Playing Catch-Up

"[China's third [aircraft] carrier is] by many measures more capable than the Liaoning and the Shandong."

"Overall, compared to the two preceding carriers which are ski-jump configured the Fujian has greater combat persistence and striking power."

Collin Koh, regional naval affairs expert, Nanyang Technological University

 

"After the ceremony, Xi Jinping boarded the Fujian ... and learned about the development of the aircraft carrier system combat capabilities and the construction and application of the electromagnetic catapult system." 

"[Xi also went into the carrier's control tower to learn about flight operations, and he] solemnly signed the ship's logbook." 

"[The atmosphere of the official commissioning on Hainan was] grand and enthusiastic."

Xinhua official news 

 

"Carriers are key to Chinese leadership’s vision of China as a great power with a blue-water navy, [or one that can project power far from its coastal waters]."

"A carrier doesn’t really help you in the First Island Chain, but it’s key to that contest, if you want one, with the Americans in the wider Indo-Pacific."

"[China’s] increasingly capable military [and ability to] project power globally [is one of the reasons the Pentagon in its latest report to Congress continued to call it] the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order."

Greg Poling, director, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies 

South China Morning Post

"[China is] extensively and rapidly strengthening its military power without transparency."

"We believe that China’s military intends to advance its operational capability at distant sea and air by strengthening sea power."

"[Japan is watching China’s military activity and would] calmly but decisively respond [if necessary]."

Minoru Kihara, former defense minister, now chief cabinet secretary in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s new government 

 

"They want those aircraft carriers to play a part in kind of extending the strategic perimeter farther out from China, and one of the important things that an aircraft carrier can do is extend the range of China’s domain awareness to keep an eye on activities in the air, on the sea, and below the sea."

"The Fujian carrier is a big leapfrog for China in terms of the capabilities of its aircraft carriers compared to the first two."

"Really across the board, China’s closing the gap [between its growing military technology and that of the United States]."

"They’re fielding and building more aircraft carriers, they’re fielding more nuclear-powered subs, they are fielding more, larger destroyers and other vessels that carry a larger number of missiles. So they’re really catching up." 

Brian Hart, deputy director, CSIS’s China Power Project   

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, conducts a maiden sea trial on May 7, 2024. (Ding Ziyu/Xinhua via AP, File)

 

 In a not-too-subtle poke at Taiwan, Beijing's newly commissioned third aircraft carrier has been named after Fujian, the province facing Beijing-contested Taiwan. The technologically advanced aircraft carrier was commissioned at a naval port in the country's southern island province of Hainan with Chinese president Xi Jinping in attendance. Following sea trials over recent months, the Fujian now officially becomes China's third carrier in active operation. The Liaoning and the Shandong pre-dated this third of China's aircraft carrier fleet.

 

This third vessel -- produced at an astronomical cost, likely well over $10-billion (71,193,500,000.00 Chinese Yuan) -- has a distinct purpose, for Beijing to project its maritime power against that of the United States, amidst flashpoints such a territorial disputes in the South China Sea and Beijing's ongoing claims over Taiwan and its intentions of reunification with the self-ruling Republic of China which it claims is a breakaway province, historically part of China, albeit autonomously self-ruled since 1949.

 

The flight deck of China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian during the electromagnetic catapult-assisted takeoff training at an undisclosed location AP Photo

 

Although not nuclear-powered, this aircraft carrier comes equipped with an electro-magnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). Only  the USS Gerald R. Ford with the American fleet had formerly possessed this advanced launch system which now also allows the Chinese air force to deploy jets carrying large payloads and greater fuel amounts. The USS Gerald R Ford is capable of carrying 70 aircraft, and now the Fujian, though not quite as large, has a similar formidable capability, as the contest between the two world powers heats up.

 

Beijing still has a distance to traverse in its plans to match the size of the U.S. military fleet's might. The United States has eleven aircraft carriers in service, its military prowess unequalled by any other maritime power. Beijing has countered that distance by forging ahead with billions in a money-is-no-object bid to demonstrate its military credentials as a force to be reckoned with. A reality that Beijing pairs with its aggressive claims of ownership over disputed land, sea and air space unnerving other governments in East Asia with their own competing claims. 

 

 The flight deck of China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian AP Photo