China officially commissioned its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian (Type 003), on Wednesday during a ceremony at a naval base in Sanya, Hainan Province.
The ceremony, announced Thursday by Chinese state television (CCTV), featured President Xi Jinping presiding over the flag-raising and inspection, joined by senior officials including Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing and Cai Qi, Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
Construction on the Fujian began in 2015, with the vessel launched in 2022 and completing its first sea trials in 2024. The carrier is the third in China’s fleet, following the Liaoning (Type 001) and Shandong (Type 002), and the second to be entirely domestically built.
Unlike its predecessors, the Fujian incorporates a Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) system — a launch and recovery technology used on U.S. supercarriers that allows aircraft to take off with heavier payloads.
The commissioning marks another milestone in the rapid modernization of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Over the last decade, China has expanded its naval capacity at a rate unmatched by any other country. Analysts increasingly believe that the PLAN has reached near-parity with U.S. naval power in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
While the U.S. maintains 11 aircraft carriers globally, only four or five can be deployed to a single region at any given time. With the Fujian entering service and a fourth carrier (Type 004, China’s first nuclear-powered carrier) expected by 2030, Beijing is positioning itself to match American carrier strength in East Asia.
The PLAN is already the world’s largest navy by ship count, operating roughly 370 battle force ships compared to the U.S. Navy’s 296. With Chinese shipyards producing around 30 warships annually—far outpacing U.S. output—many defense observers predict that China could achieve clear naval dominance in the Indo-Pacific within the next decade.