China has officially launched the country’s 3rd aircraft carrier, the Fujian, “in a short but festive ceremony” on Friday morning at the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) shipyard in Shanghai, reported the state media of China.
Once the naming certificate had been handed to the Fujian’s commanding officer, the ribbon was cut to officiate the launch and the ship left the dock, the state-run Global Times said, according to media. Dozens of Chinese Navy personnel attended the ceremony including many senior officials such as Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The Fujian will join the PLA Navy’s two fully-functioning aircraft carriers Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted domestically.
The newly launched carrier is part of an ongoing effort to modernize the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy). It further demonstrates the Chinese military’s increasing capability at a time of rising tension with the United States over Taiwan and Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.
China on Friday launched its third aircraft carrier, which has been named the Fujian after the country’s southeastern coastal province. https://t.co/8OXIP9p0l4 pic.twitter.com/CYllhWfetM
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) June 17, 2022
China’s first fully domestically developed aircraft carrier
The Fujian is China’s first fully domestically developed aircraft carrier which uses an electromagnetic catapult launch system and arresting devices to enable planes to take off and land on its full-length flight deck. The ship has a displacement of more than 80,000 tons, it added.
It is named after the coastal province of Fujian which lies just across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan and is the home of the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The aircraft carrier will now start mooring and sea trials.
The Fujian and a fourth carrier, which is also under construction and is expected to be nuclear-powered, are larger and able to carry more aircraft than the two existing vessels.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said earlier this week that the Fujian was about to be launched, sharing satellite imagery that showed the dry dock holding the Fujian had been flooded and pennant flags strung along the ship’s flight deck.