After a period without major reports, South Korea has alarmingly reported that the new aircraft carrier Fujian (CV-18) of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China may have sailed through disputed waters between the two countries. It is important to mention that the capital ship had begun a new voyage to an unknown location in mid-May, as was learned from a notice about traffic restrictions for large vessels at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
Launched in 2022, China’s third aircraft carrier—and the first of national design—is undergoing extensive navigation trials and systems verification ahead of its future commissioning and entry into service. Since then, various milestones have been recorded that mark the progress in the incorporation process of this new naval platform, which promises, thanks to its aircraft launch and recovery systems, to resemble the capabilities of United States Navy aircraft carriers.
In that sense, the latest available reports, based on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), placed the Fujian in an unknown location conducting tests with its electromagnetic catapult systems. In particular, it is the country’s first ship to be equipped with technology similar to the U.S. Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), used on its new Gerald R. Ford–class carriers. This represents a major advance, as it allows the deployment of aircraft with a greater payload compared to the STOBAR configuration present on the first two carriers.
However, the most recent developments regarding the aircraft carrier raised alarms in the region. In this regard, South Korean authorities reportedly detected it conducting operations with its embarked air wing in the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) between May 22 and 28, while three maritime exclusion zones established by China were active. It is worth mentioning that both countries established the PMZ in the Yellow Sea in the year 2000, in a location where their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) overlap across a span of 230 miles. At the end of May, China declared “navigation prohibition zones” within the PMZ for the conduct of military exercises.
Beyond this voyage, what did not go unnoticed was that it was the first time a Chinese Navy aircraft carrier carried out this type of operation in the PMZ, which was closely monitored by South Korea. According to analysts, this is a message from the Asian giant to demonstrate its ability to deploy assets in sensitive and shallow areas, such as the Yellow Sea. “This likely indicates an intention to turn the [Yellow Sea] into Chinese territorial waters and to reinforce its military power in the face of the South Korea–U.S. and Japan–U.S. alliances,” stated an editorial from the outlet The Chosun Ilbo.
Lastly, it should also be noted that recent deployments of the People’s Liberation Army Navy have shown some particularities that drew attention. Notably, in parallel with the deployment of the CV-18, the Liaoning (CV-16) was located by Japanese authorities in a new position in the western Pacific, highlighting that it marked the farthest distance reached by naval units of the Asian giant to date. This revealed Beijing’s increasingly ambitious goals of naval power and projection, deploying its ships and aircraft carriers to locations progressively farther from the Chinese mainland.
*Photographs used for illustrative purposes
You may also like: Pakistan officially confirms China’s proposal to equip its Air Force with up to 40 new J-35A stealth fighters
