China launches third aircraft carrier named after province opposite taiwan

• The Fujian will be joined by the Shandong and Liaoning, which will be commissioned in 2019.
• Only the US has more aircraft carriers, at eleven, while China has four.
• Taiwan is a vibrant democracy, but China believes the island to be its own territory and has never shied away from using force to reclaim it.

On Friday, China launched the Fujian, a third aircraft carrier named after the province that borders self-ruled Taiwan, sending a message to adversaries as it modernises its military.

President Xi Jinping has prioritised rebuilding the world’s largest military forces, aiming to project influence well beyond China’s borders, despite the government’s claims to the contrary.

At a celebration at the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai, state media stated that champagne, colourful ribbons, water cannons, and smoke were used to commemorate the carrier’s launch and formal designation.

At the ceremony, which was attended by senior officials including Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, dozens of navy soldiers lined up in front of the ship and sung the national song.

According to state media, the aircraft carrier has a full-length flight deck with a catapult launch system.

The Fujian will be joined by the Shandong, which will be commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China purchased secondhand from Ukraine in 1998 and rebuilt at home.

China is still honing its ability to manage aircraft carriers and integrate them into combat groups, as the US has done for decades.

Only the United States has more aircraft carriers, at eleven.

The Fujian’s launch demonstrates the military’s increasing capability at a time of rising tension with the United States over Chinese-claimed Taiwan and Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command is based in Fujian, a coastal province located over the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan.

Taiwan is a vibrant democracy, but China believes the island to be its own territory and has never shied away from using force to reclaim it.

According to a senior Taiwan official acquainted with the island’s security plans, China was signalling to the area with the aircraft carrier that it intended to project power far into the Pacific.

“They intend to directly infiltrate to the east of the first island chain, which covers Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and Pacific waters off Taiwan’s east,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“Beijing regards any regional collaboration as an intervention in the Taiwan problem or a challenge to China. The new carrier’s launch is a forceful message.”

Taiwan has been modernising its military forces, including deploying a new class of highly manoeuvrable stealth warships dubbed “aircraft carrier killers” because to its missile armament.

In a statement to Reuters regarding the new carrier, Taiwan’s defence ministry stated that it “attaches significant weight” to China’s military developments and “incorporates this into adversary situation analysis in a forward-looking manner.”