China launches its first ‘home-made’ carrier
Naming ship after Taiwan’s nearest mainland province increases fears that Beijing may invade island nation
CHINA has launched its first aircraft carrier to have been wholly designed and built domestically and has named it after the country’s closest province to Taiwan.
The Fuijian, China’s third aircraft carrier, is its most advanced and entirely its own work, according to state media. It comes as Beijing continues to strengthen its navy amid rising tensions with Washington and Asia-pacific nations.
The vessel, equipped with the latest aircraft launch technology and weaponry, is named Fujian after a Chinese coastal province, as were its predecessors, Liaoning and Shandong.
However, the name is politically charged because Fujian is separated from Taiwan by a strait that is 130km wide at its narrowest point.
The timing of the launch comes amid increased fears in the West that Beijing may attempt to invade Taiwan, a selfruled democracy that China considers to be a breakaway province.
The ship was launched during a pomp-filled ceremony at the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai. Sailors clad in white uniforms applauded under colourful clouds of smoke as jets of water arched over the vessel. Its flight deck was adorned with colourful bunting and banners bearing political slogans such as: “Deliver combat power – fighting to fully build a world-class navy.”
The new ship could be a “game changer” for the Chinese navy, Collin Koh, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Agence France-presse.
With a displacement of more than 80,000 tons, it is comparable in size to the US navy’s aircraft carriers.
Fujian has an electromagnetic catapult-assisted launch system, similar to the one used on the newest US carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
China’s first carrier, Liaoning, was a repurposed Soviet ship and its second, Shandong, was built domestically using a Soviet design.
They employ the so-called “ski-jump” method to launch aircraft and have ramps at the end of a short runway to help planes take off.
Fujian’s use of a catapult means the ship will be able to launch a broader variety of aircraft, enabling China to project naval power at a greater range, Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defence intelligence company Janes, told the Associated
Press. “These catapults allow aircraft deployed to carry a more extensive load of weapons in addition to external fuel tanks,” Mr Rahmat added.
“Once fully operational, the …carrier would also be able to deploy a more complete suite of aircraft associated with carrier strike group operations, including carrier onboard delivery transport and airborne early warning and control airframes, such as the KJ-600.”
Nevertheless, unlike the US navy’s nuclear-powered carriers, the Fujian uses conventional propulsion. Nuclear vessels have significant advantages in that they can operate for long periods without the need to dock and refuel.
Fujian will carry out mooring and navigation tests at a later date, state media said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made strengthening the military a priority and in the decade he has been in power, China has doubled down on sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea and expanded its presence into the Indian Ocean and beyond.
The US Department of Defence said in a report last year that the carrier development program was critical to the Chinese navy’s continued development into a global force, “gradually extending its operational reach beyond East Asia into a sustained ability to operate at increasingly longer ranges”.