China aims to expand its power in the Pacific with its new Fujian aircraft carrier

HONG KONG — China’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier has entered service, Chinese state media said Friday, a major step for the world’s largest navy as it seeks to challenge U.S. dominance in the Pacific.

Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier, but the first to be both designed and built domestically. It features an electromagnetic catapult system that allows the launch of aircraft with heavier payloads than existing launch systems, according to CCTV, China’s state broadcaster.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping presided over the commissioning of the aircraft carrier at a military port on Hainan Island on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by more than 2,000 naval officers and construction personnel, CCTV said.

China’s previous two aircraft carriers used a ski-jump type system, unable to handle fighter jets carrying heavier loads or large support aircraft. Its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was manufactured by the Soviet Union while its second, the Shandong, was built in China on the Soviet model.

Fujian’s three electromagnetic catapult positions “were particularly visible” along the flight deck, according to the CCTV report, which also showcased China’s new carrier-based jets: the J-35 stealth fighter, the J-15T heavy fighter and the KJ-600 early warning aircraft.

Although the Chinese navy is the largest in the world, the US navy, with its 11 aircraft carriers, is still considered the most advanced.

Under Xi, China’s navy has undergone rapid modernization with the aim of being able to take on that of the United States. China has said its goal is for military modernization to be “virtually complete” by 2035 and for China’s military to be “world-class” by 2049, the 100th anniversary of communist rule.

Experts say Fujian and the two other carriers could be crucial assets in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its territory.

China’s neighbors are closely monitoring its military developments.

“It appears that the Chinese military’s goal is to improve its operational capabilities in distant waters and airspace through strengthening its naval forces,” Minoru Kihara, a Japanese government spokesman, told reporters in Tokyo on Friday.

He said China was “dramatically and rapidly expanding its military capabilities, without sufficient transparency,” adding that Japan was monitoring Chinese military activity in the region and would “respond calmly but also resolutely” if necessary.

The commissioning of the Fujian comes two months after China held a massive military parade in Beijing that showcased its most advanced weapons.

The Fujian, launched in 2022 and whose sea trials began in May 2024, is only the second aircraft carrier in the world to use an electromagnetic catapult system after the last American aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Most U.S. carriers use older steam catapult technology that China has bypassed.

But Fujian is lagging behind in one key area: nuclear energy.

All US aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered, meaning they have a virtually unlimited range, while the Fujian, which is the largest conventionally powered warship in the world, is estimated to have a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles.

That could change, however, as China could develop a nuclear-powered supercarrier, NBC News reported in March.

China’s three aircraft carriers – the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian – are named after coastal provinces.