Will China’s new aircraft carrier tilt the power balance in the western Pacific?

Now that the Chinese navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has entered service there could be a change in the power balance in the western Pacific, the South China Sea and even the Indian Ocean, according to experts.

The Fujian – China’s third aircraft carrier – was commissioned last Wednesday in Sanya, Hainan province, in a grand ceremony overseen by President Xi Jinping, state media reported on Friday.

It is the first Chinese warship equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system that can launch aircraft at much higher speeds. The United States has one aircraft carrier equipped with the same technology out of a fleet of 11, with some undergoing maintenance.

Fu Qianshao, a military analyst and former PLA Air Force member, said the addition of the Fujian could even up the aircraft carrier power balance between China and the US in the western Pacific – with China even holding some advantages.

“The US has only about four or five aircraft carriers available for global deployment, and that number is even smaller in the western Pacific,” he said. “In terms of the number of aircraft carriers [in the region], the US and China are often roughly equal – and at times, China may even have a numerical advantage.”

Fu said that due to the complexity and long maintenance cycles of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, many of the American fleet were awaiting major overhauls, while China’s carriers were all new.

  

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