China jet enters service, navy building ‘firstclass’ fleet
BEIJING: China has put into service its newgeneration J20 stealth fighter, a warplane it hopes will narrow the military gap with the United States, as senior naval officers said the country was building a ‘‘firstclass’’ navy and developing a marine corps.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping modernisation of the country’s armed forces, the largest in the world, including antisatellite missiles and advanced submarines, seeking to project power far from its shores.
In a report yesterday, state television’s military channel confirmed the J20 had entered service, though it gave no other details.
The aircraft was shown in public for the first time in November at the Zhuhai airshow and was first glimpsed by Chinese planespotters in 2010.
China showed off another stealth fighter it is developing, the J31, at the last Zhuhai airshow in 2014, a show of muscle that coincided with a visit by then US president Barack Obama for an AsiaPacific summit.
China hopes the J31, still in development, will compete with the USmade F35 stealth aircraft in the international market, according to state media reports.
The navy is another key focus for China.
China’s navy has been taking an increasingly prominent role in recent months, with a rising star admiral taking command, its first aircraft carrier sailing around selfruled Taiwan and new Chinese warships popping up in farflung places.
With US President Donald Trump promising a US shipbuilding spree and unnerving Beijing with his unpredictable approach on hotbutton issues including Taiwan and the South and East China Seas, China is pushing to narrow the gap with the US Navy.
Wang Weiming, deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, told Xinhua on the sidelines of the annual meeting of Parliament that China was speeding up the development of a marine corps, adding destroyers and frigates, and would step up air and sea patrols.
‘‘We will intercept any intruding aircraft and follow every military vessel in areas under our responsibility,’’ Wang said.
‘‘Our sailors should stay vigilant and be able to deal with emergencies at all times.’’
China’s second domestically developed aircraft carrier was in ‘‘good shape’’ and now awaiting fitting, he said yesterday.
Experts expect it will enter service around 2020, joining China’s existing, Sovietbuilt carrier, Liaoning.
Another senior officer, Li Yanming, political commissar of the navy’s armaments department, said a ‘‘firstclass navy should be equipped with firstclass armaments’’.
China this year initially failed to publicly release its defence budget on the opening day of Parliament as it has done in previous years, finally saying a day later on Monday that it would rise by 7% to 1.044 trillion yuan (NZ$218.7 billion).
China’s defence spending amounts to only about a quarter of the US defence budget, though many experts believe its actual spending on the military is higher than the official figure. — Reuters