China Growing Naval Power: The 4th Aircraft Carrier

35

China is reportedly developing a fourth aircraft carrier, making it the second-largest carrier power after the US, with an announcement on the new flat top carrier expected soon.

The fourth carrier may be China’s first nuclear-powered surface ship, a significant milestone in ship development and a key factor in projecting Chinese military power abroad.

Chinese Navy Vice Admiral and political commissar Yuan Huazhi confirmed that there would be an announcement soon and that there were no technical bottlenecks in the construction of new carriers.

Chinese media outlets, including South China Morning Post and Global Times, have reported the exchange as confirmation of a fourth ship.

That armed forces are properly indoctrinated in the correct political thought and that sentiment opposing the Chinese Communist Party is stamped out.

China has three aircraft carriers: Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian, with Liaoning, a Soviet navy carrier, commissioned as an aircraft carrier in 2012.

China’s latest aircraft carriers, Shandong and Fujian, use ski ramps and electromagnetic launch systems, but lack nuclear propulsion, demonstrating the country’s ability to build aircraft carriers.

Nuclear power gives aircraft carriers virtually unlimited range, allowing them to sail for thousands of miles and requiring only food and munitions for combat operations.

China is expected to build several more aircraft carriers to match the U.S. Navy, as the tyranny of the three means that for every three carriers, a country can only guarantee one at sea at all times.

China needs to build seven nuclear-powered carriers to match the USS Nimitz, Vinson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, Stennis, and Reagan, equivalent to the US Pacific Fleet.

China’s shipyards are expected to continue operating for the next twenty years due to the lack of a single nuclear-powered surface ship.