Naval News reports that “the anticipated first sea trial of Chinese supercarrier Fujian represents a significant milestone on getting China’s first supercarrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults ready for service.” It left Jiangnan on Changxing Island on April 29.
Imagery of Fujian previously showed the carrier testing her engines around April 21. The observation created some anticipation that the ship would sail out on the occasion of the anniversary for the Chinese Navy on April 23. That day historically marks the inception of the East China Military Region Navy, typically shortened to “East China Navy”, as announced by Zhang Aiping in April 1949 during the Chinese Civil War. The Central Military Commission in 1989 officially designated the date and event to mark the founding of PLAN. That date however went by with Fujian remaining at berth, perhaps illustrating that PLAN is more concerned with sticking to technical schedules over symbolic gestures.
The sea trial represents the most recent milestone in a development now spanning six years since the first sighting of a “superblock” hull module for the future aircraft carrier at Jiangnan back around July 2018.
Aircraft carrier Fujian takes her name from the eponymous Chinese province in southeast China. The territory, home to over 40 million people, is located directly opposite Taiwan, a fact that inevitably carries a political message given Beijings relationship to the island country the Communist Party considers a renegade province and firmly claims as part of the Chinese nation. The carrier also uses hull number 18, following from the two previous aircraft carriers Liaoning (16) and Shandong (17).
Chinese official sources are traditionally opaque on technical details of new military developments. The People’s Daily, the official state media of the Central Committee, at the time of launch specified the size of Fujian as exceeding 80,000 tons. The report also confirmed that the carrier uses electromagnetic catapults and arrestor gear, a detail already widely assumed to be the case by the PLAN watching community. The Global Times tabloid furthermore speculated that the carrier would see service with PLAN within two to three years. This schedule however appears optimistic given the unprecedented nature of this development.
“Beijing’s journey towards world dominance took another big step forward,” wrote Lewis Page in his Telegraph article. “Once the PLAN has learned how to use her, the Fujian will be more than a match for a British carrier, or the single French one. She will only be a little less powerful than one of the US Navy’s mighty supercarriers. The implications of this are huge. Seventy per cent of the world is salt water. Almost all of the human race lives within range of aircraft launched from a carrier in the nearest sea or ocean.”
Page added that Russia, China and Iran make no secret of the fact that they don’t like the world the way it is under the Pax Americana and India appears to be slipping into the Russian Camp.
Thus, the West’s reliance on India for naval repairs may be a red flag:
US, UK warships dock in India’s Chennai for faster repairs – In the sign of the West’s increasing reliance on India – the country’s shipyards are becoming sort of a maintenance hub for foreign Navy assets in the Indo-Pacific region. See also UK RFA Ships to Undergo Repairs in India for the First Time
The UK and the US are falling behind:
Snapshot of the status of the British fleet – Currently, just over 19 percent of the Royal Navy’s major surface combatants are active or immediately deployable. If ships in maintenance are included, that figure reaches around 43 percent. The article link gives a list of what is where for repairs.
Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers
Total Number: 2, Currently Active: 0 (0% of the class)
HMS Queen Elizabeth: Maintenance at Rosyth.
HMS Prince of Wales: Maintenance at Portsmouth.
The list continues.
The Royal Navy Has Wasted Billons on an Aircraft Carrier That Doesn’t Work – The HMS Queen Elizabeth, a $3.7 billion flagship, has been particularly problematic, experiencing both a fire and a propeller issue within a short span.
The UK will develop hypersonic missiles to ‘catch up’ with China and Russia – While the UK does not currently have hypersonic missiles in their weaponry, a new plan from the Ministry of Defence hopes to design and build the weapons in the UK by 2030.
And More:
• China and Russia dominating the hypersonic arms race; and it’s not even close
• A credible deterrent? Trident missile fails during test launch from HMS Vanguard
• The US Navy: Dead In The Water?
Beware The Chinese
“The Chinese, according to a very high-ranking Chinese PLA General, have been planning for a hundred years, to fight and defeat the US and UK in a war, as revenge and payback for what the UK and US did to the Chinese people during and after the two ‘Opium Wars’.” The UK and US killed many thousands of Chinese and forced opium on the Chinese people, turning vast numbers of Chinese people into opium addicts, living in the famous Chinese opium dens, and the Chinese have never forgotten it. – Gibraltar Messenger.
“It was a sellout that might be compared to this hypothetical situation: Suppose the United States was at war with the Soviet Union. And we were winning. And we told the Soviet Union: “Well, let’s quit. We offer you peace terms. Let’s forget the whole thing.” And all of a sudden Red China came into the war as an ally of the Soviet Union. And throwing them into the war brought about our defeat. A crushing defeat, with reparations the likes of which man’s imagination cannot encompass.! Imagine, then, after that defeat, if we found out that it was the Chinese in this country, our Chinese citizens, who all the time we had thought were loyal citizens working with us, were selling us out to the Soviet Union and that it was through them that Red China was brought into the war against us. How would we feel, then, in the United States against Chinese? I don’t think that one of them would dare show his face on any street. There wouldn’t be enough convenient lampposts to take care of them. Imagine how we would feel.” – Benjamin Freedman
An Epoch Times Documentary: “The Final War: The 100-Year Plot to Defeat America”
An unprecedented combination of personal story and geopolitical struggle, history, and present, “The Final War” follows Epoch Times reporters and top China watchers through their journeys of awakening to the CCP threat. To say the least, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a mystery to most Americans. But behind the party jargon, unpredictable actions, and ever-changing face lies the Party’s vicious plot, with America at the very heart of it. How dangerous are Beijing’s tactics in Afghanistan, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Taiwan Strait? Behind the most dire issues of our time, what is the CCP’s underlying strategy toward the United States? Why is the Chinese regime promoting the idea of “World War III”?
PROTOCOL 7 – WORLD-WIDE WARS: Encouraging an arms race – Universal war to check goy opposition – The guns of America, China and Japan
Phase 2 of WW3 – Revelation 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great River Euphrates; and the “water” (Rev. 17:15) thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East (eastern block – the U.S.S.R. and China re-united) might be prepared.
God is preparing Russia and China to punish His Israel – The UK and US, as punishment for not keeping The Law. As far as the Counterfeit State of Israel goes, read Obadiah, ie verse 1:10 “For [thy] violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.”
Ezekiel 38 (extract)
Thus says the Lord God; behold I AM against you Gog the prince of Rosh (Russia) Meshech (Moscow) and Tubal (Tobolsk) – the Western and Eastern Capitols of the U.S.S.R. (now called the C.I.S.): I will turn you back (from seeking peace) and put hooks into your jaws (hunger), and I will bring you forth, with all your armed forces and Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, Togarmah and ALL the earth with them against My people Israel (Britain and the British Commonwealth; America; Scandinavia; the Netherlands; the Baltic States; Northern France; Northern Spain and the Jews) to the lands of unwalled villages (walls of untempered mortar) without bars or gates (no defences because of defence cuts after the “so-called” peace dividend), when they (the politicians – foolish prophets) say peace, peace and there was NO peace.