By AFP and Focus | 2025-11-10

China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has officially entered service, state media said in November.

The event is a key milestone in President Xi Jinping's drive to modernize the military and to challenge the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific.

The latest aircraft carrier has an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), something that previously only the USS Gerald R. Ford possessed.

The advanced takeoff system allows China to deploy jets carrying larger payloads and more fuel than it could otherwise.

Xi's naval ambitions

State news agency Xinhua said on November 7 that Xi had "personally decided" the Fujian would adopt the EMALS technology. The carrier shares its name with the province facing Taiwan.

Beijing does not rule out using force to seize Taiwan, a democratic island that it claims as part of its territory. It also claims more than 80% of the South China Sea as its territory.

Analysts say China lags behind the United States, which has 11 aircraft carriers in service, in overall military prowess.

But Beijing has devoted billions of dollars to a military buildup in recent years, a trend that has unnerved some governments in East Asia despite Chinese proclamations of peaceful intent.

The navy in particular has seen a massive expansion as leaders seek to grow China's reach in the Pacific and challenge a US-led alliance.

The Fujian's commissioning took place at a naval port in China's southern island province of Hainan on November 5, Xinhua reported, describing the atmosphere as "grand and enthusiastic."

"After the ceremony, Xi Jinping boarded the Fujian ... and learned about the development of the aircraft carrier system combat capabilities and the construction and application of the electromagnetic catapult system," it said.

After conducting sea trials in recent months, the Fujian now joins China's other two carriers in active operation, the Liaoning and the Shandong.

The Soviet-built Liaoning is the oldest, commissioned in 2012, while the Shandong entered service in 2019.

China's most capable carrier yet

China's third carrier is "by many measures more capable than the Liaoning and the Shandong," Collin Koh, an analyst of regional naval affairs at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.

"Overall, compared to the two preceding carriers which are ski-jump configured, the Fujian has greater combat persistence and striking power," said Koh.

Chinese military analyst Zhang Xuefeng stated on China Central Television that the Fujian could establish an anti-access line spanning over 1,000km across the western Pacific, deterring US forces from advancing eastward into the Taiwan Strait and "playing a crucial role" in any future campaign for the "reunification of the motherland."

The Fujian had already been in the spotlight several times leading up to its commissioning.

Chinese defense officials confirmed in September that the Fujian had sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait to carry out "scientific research trials and training missions" in the South China Sea.

Analysts say the transit was likely intended to send a strong signal to potential adversaries.

Defense ministries in Japan and Taiwan said at the time that they had detected the Fujian's movements, which brought it within approximately 200km of the disputed Senkaku Islands, known in Chinese as the Diaoyu Islands.

China released videos in September of aircraft takeoffs and landings aboard the Fujian, including of the fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighter and of J-15T and KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

State media hailed those particular aircraft's takeoffs and landings as a "new breakthrough" in the development of Chinese carriers and a "major milestone" in the modernization of the navy.

Full readiness a year away

The commissioning of the Fujian marks China's transition to a three-carrier structure.

China now can keep one carrier deployed year round, while the other two rotate through training and maintenance.

The carrier group is expected to maintain a continuous presence around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, exerting sustained strategic pressure on Taiwan and neighboring states.

However, the Fujian will likely need "at least another year before reaching full operational capability," said Ben Lewis, founder of the open-source data platform PLATracker, according to Reuters.