China has, over the past five years or so, stepped up its military presence around Taiwan, including staging war games, to assert its sovereignty claims.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
China considers the Taiwan Strait to be its territorial waters. Taiwan, the US and many of its allies say it is an international waterway.
The South China Sea has been another site of increased Chinese military activity. China claims most of the sea. These claims are contested by many countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam.
The Fujian, designed and built domestically, is larger and more advanced than the Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998.
With a flat deck and electro-magnetic catapults to launch aircraft, the Fujian is expected to host a larger and wider range of planes than the other two carriers – including early-warning aircraft and, eventually, China’s first carrier-capable stealth jet fighters.
Chieh Chung, a researcher at the Taipei-based Association of Strategic Foresight, said that once the Fujian enters service, it would enable China to maintain three carrier strike groups in tactical positions across the Western Pacific.
Given the Fujian can also carry fixed-wing early warning aircraft, unlike the two other carriers, this extends its long-range “defence zone” beyond 600km, he added.
Regional security analysts and military attaches are watching the Fujian’s trials closely, in part to see how effectively China’s navy can coordinate full-blown carrier operations with escort ships and submarines.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-aircraft-carrier-fujian-taiwan-strait-5345441
