BANGKOK(National Times)- China has commissioned its latest aircraft carrier after extensive sea trials, state media reported Friday, adding a ship that experts say will help what is already the world\u2019s largest navy expand its power farther beyond its own waters. The official Xinhua news agency said the Fujian had been commissioned Wednesday at a naval base on southern China\u2019s Hainan island in a ceremony attended by top leader Xi Jinping. The Fujian is China\u2019s third carrier and the first that it both designed and built itself. It is perhaps the most visible example so far of Xi\u2019s massive military overhaul and expansion that aims to have a modernized force by 2035 and one that is \u201cworld class\u201d by mid century \u2014 which most take to mean capable of going toe-to-toe with the United States. With it, Beijing takes another step toward closing the gap with the U.S. Navy and its carrier fleet and network of bases that allow it to maintain a presence around the world. \u201cCarriers are key to Chinese leadership\u2019s vision of China as a great power with a blue-water navy,\u201d or one that can project power far from its coastal waters, said Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. For China\u2019s navy, one goal is to dominate the near waters of the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea around the so-called First Island Chain, which runs south through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. But deeper into the Pacific, it also wants to be able to contest control of the Second Island Chain, where the U.S. has important military facilities on Guam and elsewhere, Poling said. \u201cA carrier doesn\u2019t really help you in the First Island Chain, but it\u2019s key to that contest, if you want one, with the Americans in the wider Indo-Pacific,\u201d Poling said. China\u2019s \u201cincreasingly capable military\u201d and ability to \u201cproject power globally\u201d is one of the reasons the Pentagon in its latest report to Congress continued to call it \u201cthe only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order.\u201d At the same time, it is Beijing\u2019s right to \u201ctransform its navy into a blue-water strategic navy commensurate with China\u2019s national strength,\u201d said Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based military affairs expert. \u201cChina\u2019s carriers cannot just operate near home, they must operate in the distant oceans and far seas to carry out various training and support missions,\u201d Song said. \u201cChina is a great power and our overseas interests span the globe; we need to be globally present.\u201d News that the Fujian had been commissioned was met with wariness in nearby Japan. Minoru Kihara, a former defense minister and now chief cabinet secretary in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s new government, said it underscores that China is \u201cextensively and rapidly strengthening its military power without transparency.\u201d \u201cWe believe that China\u2019s military intends to advance its operational capability at distant sea and air by strengthening sea power,\u201d he told reporters, emphasizing that Japan was watching China\u2019s military activity and would \u201ccalmly but decisively respond\u201d if necessary. One possibility that raises concerns in foreign capitals is a possible Chinese blockade or invasion of the democratically self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and which leader Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking by force. Though the island sits right off of China\u2019s coast, if China had the ability to position an aircraft carrier group or groups around the Second Island Chain \u2014 between Taiwan and the U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii \u2014 that could delay possible American military assistance in the event of a Chinese attack. \u201cThey want those aircraft carriers to play a part in kind of extending the strategic perimeter farther out from China, and one of the important things that an aircraft carrier can do is extend the range of China\u2019s domain awareness to keep an eye on activities in the air, on the sea, and below the sea,\u201d said Brian Hart, deputy director of CSIS\u2019s China Power Project China\u2019s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was Soviet made and its second, the Shandong, was built in China but based on the Soviet model. Both use older-style ski-jump type systems to help planes take flight. The Fujian skips past the steam catapult technology used on most American carriers to employ an electromagnetic launch system found only on the latest U.S. Navy Ford-class carriers. The system causes less stress to the aircraft and the ship, allows for more precise control over speed and can launch a wider range of aircraft than the steam system. Compared to the ski-jump system, it gives China the ability to launch heavier aircraft, with full fuel loads, like the KJ-600 early warning and control plane, which it successfully tested during its sea trials. Its latest J-35 stealth fighter and J-15T heavy fighter were also launched from the Fujian, giving the new carrier \u201cfull-deck operation capability\u201d according to the Chinese navy. The ability to carry its own reconnaissance aircraft means unlike its first two carriers, it won\u2019t be operating blind when out of the range of land-based support, giving it the ability to operate its most advanced aircraft far afield including the Second Island Chain. \u201cThe Fujian carrier is a big leapfrog for China in terms of the capabilities of its aircraft carriers compared to the first two,\u201d Hart said .\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK(National Times)- China has commissioned its latest aircraft carrier after extensive sea trials, state media reported Friday, adding a ship that experts say will help what is already the world\u2019s largest navy expand its power farther beyond its own waters. The official Xinhua news agency said the Fujian had been commissioned Wednesday at a naval […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n