Foreign media focus on China's third aircraft carrier "Fujian" joining the fleet: The commissioning of "Fujian" symbolizes the modernization pace of the Chinese Navy

China's third aircraft carrier "Fujian" held a commissioning ceremony on November 5 in a military port in Sanya, Hainan, marking that China has entered the "three-carrier era." China thus became the second country in the world, after the United States, to have an aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic catapult system.

Chinese official media highly affirmed the significance of the commissioning of Fujian, emphasizing that it "opened the era of 'electromagnetic catapult' and 'three-carrier' for the Chinese Navy."

This is the second domestically developed and manufactured aircraft carrier of China. A report from Beijing by AFP on the 7th pointed out that although "Fujian" is still a traditional non-nuclear-powered warship, it is currently the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier of the Chinese Navy. Its electromagnetic catapult system will allow more types and more weapons-carrying aircraft to take off, and its operational range is larger than that of the "Liaoning," which was modified from a Soviet carrier purchased from Ukraine, and the "Shandong," which was independently developed by China. Currently, only the United States has an aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic catapult system. AFP reported that the commissioning of "Fujian" symbolizes the modernization pace of the Chinese Navy.

However, naval equipment expert Alex Luck told AFP, "Fujian" will need many years before it can have sufficient combat capability. Moreover, China must have more such carriers to truly break the current balance of power with the United States.

Collin Koh, an expert on Asia-Pacific naval issues at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP that the Chinese Navy lags behind its potential adversaries, especially the United States, in terms of accumulated operational experience, air-sea formation experience, and especially combat experience. Lack of combat experience is a major weakness of the Chinese Navy.

AFP cited Alex Luck as pointing out that so far, China has never used an aircraft carrier for long-range power projection operations. "Fujian" may be no exception. It may mainly be used for training and exercises.

Collin Koh believes that China is likely to use "Fujian" to continue its aircraft carrier development and accumulate experience for building new carriers in the future.

According to reports from Chinese official media, although "Fujian" has officially joined the fleet, it does not mean it will go to the front lines for combat and form real combat capability. According to international rules and conventions, it takes 5-8 years from commissioning to forming combat capability.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1848143964113930/

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