On Friday, Chinese media reported that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has officially taken its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, into service at a naval base on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

The state news agency Xinhua said the commissioning ceremony had been held on Wednesday, with Chinese President Xi Jinping in attendance.

International reactions have been guarded. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary and former defense minister Minoru Kihara said that Japan was observing China's military activity and would respond "calmly but decisively " if necessary.

Fujian is also the name of the Chinese coastal province facing the island of Taiwan in the South China Sea.

The innovations that make the Fujian aircraft carrier relevant

The Fujian is the first carrier that China designed and built independently. The first two, the Liaoning and Shandong, commissioned in 2012 and 2019, relied heavily on Soviet blueprints.

The new carrier is equipped with an advanced takeoff technology — a sort of electromagnetic catapult known as EMALS — that is able to launch heavier jets than older steam-powered technologies, allowing for more fuel and a wider range, as well as a larger payload.

It also allows for the deployment of heavier reconnaissance planes, which are essential for providing ships with operational visibility when out of range of land-based support.

Previously, this lauch capability had been exclusive to Ford-class carriers — named after the world's largest warship to date, the USS Gerald R. Ford — in the US navy.

Projecting power in the region

Increasing the range of warships and planes in the region comes with a series of geopolitical implications, lending China growing capabilities to defend contested islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea it lays claims to, as well as challenge US primacy deeper in the Pacific.

"China's carriers cannot just operate near home, they must operate in the distant oceans and far seas to carry out various training and support missions," Hong Kong-based military expert Song Zhongping told the AP news agency. "Our overseas interests span the globe, we need to be globally present."

In a recent report to the US Congress, the Pentagon described China's military as "the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order."

Concerns over Taiwan

There are growing concerns abroad that China's growing naval force will be used to blockade or possibly invade Taiwan. The democratically self-governed island off China's eastern coast has geopolitical, economic and historical relevance in the US-China rivalry in the South China Sea and beyond.

And the Fujian had already drawn international attention ahead of its formal commissioning on Wednesday.

In September, Chinese defense officials confirmed the Fujian had passed through the Taiwan Straight on "scientific research trials and training missions." The carrier was also used to showcase takeoffs and landings of the PLA's prestigious J-35 stealth fighter. 

Beijing has been funneling billions of dollars into defense in recent years, with the aim of modernizing its forces by 2035.

A fourth carrier has been under construction since 2024, and is thought to have nuclear propulsion capabilities which will increase the distance it can travel by virtually removing the need to refuel.

China's navy is expected to have six aircraft carriers by 2030, the US Department of Defense estimates.

Challenging the US in a new 'sea race'?

In numbers, China has the world's largest navy, with over 700 warships and submarines, and over 1,000 active vessels. In comparison, the US Navy has just over 200 active ships.

But in terms of aircraft carriers, the imbalance is reversed: The US Navy has 11 aircraft carriers in total, compared to China's three. All of them are nuclear powered. 

But China has been working to close this gap, constructing new warships at a pace the US has not been able to match.

"They're fielding and building more aircraft carriers, they're fielding more nuclear-powered subs, they are fielding more, larger destroyers and other vessels that carry a larger number of missiles," the deputy director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Brian Hart, told AP.

But Singapore-based analyst an aerospace engineer Tang Meng Kit  told the AP news agency, "it is possible that China's capabilities are overstated, " and argued  that well-choreographed parades displaying modern weaponry did not translate into actual combat-readiness.

"Real-world operational readiness lags behind its showcased arsenal," he said.

Edited by: Kieran Burke