According to a recent report by the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is on track to consolidate an air-naval force that could field nine aircraft carriers in service by 2035. The document, part of the China Military Power Report 2025, describes the ambitious shipbuilding program as the largest aircraft carrier expansion effort in the Indo-Pacific since World War II, significantly enhancing the Asian country’s maritime power projection.
At present, the PLAN operates three aircraft carriers: Liaoning (16), Shandong (17), and Fujian (18), the latter regarded as the flagship of China’s new generation of carriers. According to the report, the Chinese government intends to induct six additional platforms before 2035, effectively tripling its capacity to deploy carrier strike groups. This expansion aims to sustain a continuous presence in the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, strategic areas where the United States maintains a dominant position.
The Pentagon’s report highlights that the commissioning of the Fujian in 2025 represented one of the most significant milestones of the year for China’s armed forces. With a displacement of 80,000 tons and electromagnetic catapults, the Type 003 marks China’s transition toward large-deck aircraft carriers capable of operating J-35 fifth-generation fighters and KJ-600 airborne early warning aircraft. These characteristics make it the largest warship ever built outside the United States and reflect a qualitative leap in Chinese naval doctrine.
The document also references the first simultaneous maneuvers conducted with two aircraft carriers, carried out by the embarked strike groups of the Liaoning and Shandong in the South China Sea during 2025, demonstrating a more advanced phase of joint training. In addition, the report highlights progress on the Type 076 amphibious ships (known as “drone carriers”), equipped with electromagnetic catapults to operate fixed-wing drones—an innovation that will expand the PLAN’s air-naval capabilities beyond traditional aircraft carriers.
In parallel with these developments, open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts have released satellite imagery showing progress in the construction of China’s fourth aircraft carrier, tentatively identified as Type 004. The images, taken at the Dalian shipyards, reveal the assembly of the first hull sections, with estimates placing its displacement between 100,000 and 120,000 tons, potentially putting it in the same category as the U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford–class carriers. Various sources speculate that this new ship will feature nuclear propulsion, further extending the PLAN’s operational reach.
Taken together, the expansion of the aircraft carrier fleet and the strengthening of naval bases across the Indo-Pacific—such as the Yuchi facility in Qingdao—underscore China’s strategic objective of becoming a global maritime power. For the United States, this development poses a direct challenge to its naval supremacy and raises concerns among its regional allies. Should the outlined plans materialize, China could operate by 2035 a surface fleet capable of rivaling that of the United States, reshaping the strategic balance across the world’s oceans.
Images used for illustrative purposes.
You may also like: Satellite images reveal that the Chinese Navy may be preparing a joint deployment of the aircraft carriers Liaoning and Fujian in the Pacific
The ones they have don’t work.
One had to be towed back to port.
Their catapults don’t work.
Without ground forces to follow on what good are they.
People just want more funding here
I bet you were one of the people who thought Russia would run out of weapons after fighting a couple months in Ukraine.
Don’t work? You mean like the propeller that fell off the new British carrier QE?
Or the electro catapaults that really didn’t work on the new carrier Ford, do much so that even liar Trump told the truth that they were SO bad the US Navy should go back to steam catapaults???
Yes, keep underestimating China and then war hits be prepared for devastating Western losses because of this foolish denigration of the PLAN capabilities.
Just like 1941 when the Brits lost Singapore and Hong Kong because their racist brains thought Japanese could not possibly fight well or fly planes in combat because of their “slant eyes”.
China’s new aircraft carrier requires 48 hours to fully start up. It can only do limited sorties per day due to flaws in its design and because it does not run by nuclear power. The nuclear power is necessary for the EMALS due the huge amount of power required to run. This carrier is years behind the Nimits class let alone the Ford class.
It only has to work once when you have tht many
You are overlooking the scariest part: China’s ship building capability. Did the US ha e the best tanks in WW II? No. We had the best tank factories.
China is a lot more focused on expanding its power abroad than the US. We’ve been king on the hill for a long time. Sadly, That may be changing. We can’t agree on anything in this country, how are we gong to agree to expand the military she can we really afford it?
The Fujian is nothing but a liability in real combat. Independent estimates of its electric power storage can sustain a maximum of 60 Sorties per day. A peak of 60 per hour is needed for real combat. This is before considering the tofu construction.
Impressive ship building no doubt, but China is a relative new comer to complex naval operations and incorporating air wing resources at a tempo not seen from that navy as of yet. Deep blue navy? Not so fast readers.
Can we afford it? …..the real question is can we afford not to? And the answer is no. I know the USA isn’t moral in some ways but when you deal with unmoral adversaries what choice do you have but if China was to take over being the world’s only superpower or being the one in America’s shoes things would be way worse they’re freaking communist but America is the best country in the world or I should say I think they’re the most moral country in the world but I’d have to say not at all times but sometimes bad things happen for good reasons
Why do you feel China is immoral? They rule with a heavy fist because they have 1.6 billion people to keep under control
I’m a big time China hawk, yet I agree with the poster above, who says that China is not to be underestimated. There really isn’t much stopping the Chinese military from further development, whereas we have problems such as:
1. Nice budget deficit that prevents how much we can spend. This will only get worse with time, especially if we have presidents signing Big Bertha spending bills into law.
2. Liberals. Liberals wield much power in Washington, and would be quick to quash military spending.
3. Inept shipbuilding. We couldn’t build ships out of a wet paper bag. Korea builds 10 times as many ships as we do. Korea!
We’ll have to ride ourselves of these deficiencies if we wish to compete.
Unlike China, however, we bring to the task a century of heavy shipbuilding expertise to the table, and our high standard of living guarantees that we retain the best talent in industries.
Nevertheless, we’re hopeless if we don’t get rid of the Trumps of the world–impotent, frail weaklings who are doing nothing to stop the problems. Chinese propaganda on tic Tok and X, negative pessimism at home, and a desire to burn coal instead of clean nuclear fuel guarantees that we’re going to get stomped on by China come 2035 or so.
Apparently, that’s what we want since we keep voting for Trumps and his rag tag collection of butt kissers.
Why does China need to field aircraft carriers, if not to invade!
Is that why the USA has them?
Whoever, or whatever is behind writing all of the posted comments about this article, as we read through all the comments, they can’t all have the same types of enunciation errors and grammatical mistakes, because, as we read through them, they all sound like the same person’s writing over and over again, just with differing usernames’.
Eventually quantity has a quality of it’s own.
Most naval battles fought were won by the side with the most ships.
Regarding the quote ” China has to rule with an iron fist, they have 1.6 billion people to control”
That IS the difference between us and them! IN AMERICA it is the people and our constitution that control the government and we dont kill sparrows into semi extinction resulting in millions of Chinese starving to death (see Mao)
And We have the 200× better carriers because they are not built by enslaved 9, 10 and 11 year olds