In the dockyards of Shanghai, the next step in China’s naval expansion is taking shape: a 315-metre aircraft carrier, whose construction progress was revealed by satellite photography in May this year.
China has the world’s largest navy and the largest shipbuilding industry, but the Type 003 is the latest step up: a vessel the same size as the latest US Ford class with a matching electromagnetic catapult for launching jets.
It forms part of Beijing’s attempts to push back the US navy in the western Pacific, beyond the first island chain that runs south of Japan, between Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea – the reason why Washington wants to draw far-flung Australia and the UK into the region and the Aukus defence pact.
“China has been building a capacity over the last two decades to deny the US significant freedom of action in the western Pacific,” said Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Rusi thinktank.
“That started with long-range anti-ship missiles, but now there is a growing naval capacity – and it has reached the point where the US is only viable because it has allies in the region.”
Since the second world war the US has been the dominant regional naval power, seeking to provide a security guarantee to Japan, South Korea and in particular Taiwan, which is claimed by China. But the desire by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to build a world-class navy by 2035 is fast changing the calculus.
