Power Projection: China Launches 3rd Aircraft Carrier amid Heated Race with US
China has commissioned the Fujian – its third and most advanced aircraft carrier – marking a major milestone in Beijing’s efforts to modernize its military.
The Fujian marks a significant step in China’s efforts to expand its naval capabilities, amid heated competition with the US for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Fujian Commissioning
In a grand commissioning ceremony on Wednesday, the Fujian aircraft carrier entered service, Reuters reported citing China’s state media. The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, attended the ceremony in Hainan province, during which he boarded the carrier for an inspection tour.
The Fujian is China’s first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, and the third for China’s rapidly expanding navy. It boasts advanced features that make it more powerful than its first two Russian-designed carriers.
Fujian Features
The Fujian has a flat flight deck and electromagnetic catapults that can launch three aircraft types. This tech, known as EMALS, allows planes to take off with heavier weapon and fuel loads. Thus, they can strike enemy targets from a greater distance.
It gives the Fujian advantage over the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which are smaller and use ramps to launch aircraft. The sea trials that preceded the commissioning ceremony involved the launch of Chinese J-35, J-15T and KJ-600 fighters.
The US is the only country in the world to have an aircraft carrier (the USS Gerald R Ford) with the EMALS system, according to CNN.
China’s Naval Power
China now has the world’s largest navy in terms of sheer number of ships. It has been expanding its naval capabilities at a frenetic speed under Xi’s leadership, triggering a heated competition with the US and allies to keep up.
Moreover, Chinese shipyards can produce new vessels at a significantly faster pace. Beijing also has the second most carriers in the world after its main rival, the US, which has 11. It comes ahead of the UK, India and Italy – each has two.
However, the US retains a significant edge in technology and carrier deployment numbers. This advantage is amplified by nuclear propulsion as the US nuclear-powered carriers can operate continuously for as long as crew provisions allow.
In contrast, China’s conventionally fueled Fujian must rely on port calls or at-sea tankers for refueling.
Power Projection
Defense analysts suggest the Fujian represents a major step toward developing a blue-water navy, giving Beijing the capability to project power well beyond its immediate shores.
This bolsters China’s military presence throughout the Indo-Pacific, challenging the long-established dominance of US carriers in the western Pacific.
In the light of this, the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military modernization, published in December 2024, said that the Fujian and similar carriers would enhance China‘s military power projection capabilities, partially through the deployment of highly specialized electronic warfare and anti-submarine aircraft.
“This will increase the striking power of a potential People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier battle group when deployed to areas beyond (China’s) immediate periphery,” the report noted.
