Fujian: The Carrier That Ends America’s Monopoly at Sea

On November 5 in Sanya, China formally commissioned its newest and most advanced warship, the CV 18 Fujian. It is the first Chinese aircraft carrier fitted with an electromagnetic aircraft-launch system and only the second such vessel on Earth. The ceremony, attended by Xi Jinping himself, was choreographed to leave no doubt that the era of American monopoly in carrier aviation has ended.

A leap measured in decades, achieved in years

The Fujian marks the third phase in the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s rapid evolution. Beijing describes the sequence as “from nothing to something, from transformation to domestic construction, and from ski jump to catapult.”

The first step was Liaoning, CV 16, a refitted Soviet Kuznetsov-class training carrier purchased from Ukraine. The second was Shandong, CV 17, a home-built improvement on that design. Now comes Fujian, CV 18, a clean-sheet platform that abandons the ski-jump deck entirely for three electromagnetic catapults and a flush flight deck.

Official footage of the Fujian carrier commissioning, courtesy YouTube.

The speed of the progression is extraordinary. What took Western navies a century, China has achieved in barely fifteen years. Laid down in 2016, launched in 2022, and commissioned after at least nine sea trials in 2024 to 2025, the Fujian embodies the industrial discipline of a state that has turned parity into a strategic programme.

At about 80 000 tons fully loaded, the carrier approaches the size of the U.S. Kitty Hawk class and dwarfs the PLAN’s earlier carriers, each around 60 000 tons. In capacity, design philosophy, and technological ambition, it is a decisive break from imitation and the first genuine peer to a U.S. Navy supercarrier.

Why EMALS changes everything

For seventy years, only the United States operated catapult-launched fixed-wing aviation at sea. The electromagnetic launch system, first installed on the USS Gerald R. Ford and certified in 2022, replaces the old steam catapults with electromagnetic motors. The difference is not cosmetic. EMALS enables aircraft to take off with heavier fuel and weapons loads, permits faster launch cycles, and allows lighter aircraft such as AEW&C and drones to fly from the deck without structural stress.

In practical terms, this means Chinese carrier aircraft can now reach farther, stay aloft longer, and operate independently of land-based radar or tanker support. The Fujian’s EMALS system places it in the same technological bracket as the Gerald R. Ford, but with one telling distinction: the Ford took two decades and billions of dollars to reach operational reliability. China has reached commissioning in under ten years.

The air wing of a new era

During the commissioning ceremony, four aircraft types were displayed on deck:

• J 35B — fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter, analogous to the U.S. F 35C.
• J 15T — catapult-capable strike fighter derived from the Russian Su 33.
• KJ 600 “Sea Plate” — airborne early-warning and control platform, functionally equivalent to the E 2C Hawkeye.
• Z 20J — multirole naval helicopter for anti-submarine and search-and-rescue operations.

A fifth type, the J 15DT electronic-warfare variant, is expected to follow, Beijing’s answer to the U.S. EA 18G Growler.

Together they represent China’s first true blue-water carrier air wing, capable of air defence, strike, surveillance, and electronic attack. Analysts estimate that Fujian will embark around forty fixed-wing aircraft and several helicopters, roughly half the load of a Ford-class carrier but sufficient to dominate any theatre inside the First Island Chain.

Systems, not symbols

The PLAN does not build in isolation. The Fujian is designed as the centrepiece of a fully integrated carrier strike group: Type 055 destroyers for area air defence, Type 054A frigates for escort duties, replenishment ships, and attack submarines, all domestically built. When Beijing builds, it builds systems, not headlines.

Xi Jinping’s presence at the commissioning was not theatre but doctrine: the fusion of party control, industrial power, and naval projection. State media hailed the event as a historic moment in the century-long aspiration to become a maritime power. Western analysts quietly agreed, though for different reasons. The launch signalled that China now possesses the hardware, the pilots, and the shipyards to challenge U.S. sea dominance on its own timetable.

From demonstration to deterrence

The significance of EMALS lies not only in technology but in operational tempo. Catapult launches mean faster sortie rates, and faster sortie rates mean sustained strike power. That changes the geometry of any Taiwan or South China Sea scenario.

The Fujian is expected to carry the KJ 600 early-warning aircraft, giving the fleet radar coverage of several hundred kilometres, a gap that previously left Chinese task forces dependent on land-based surveillance. It also opens the path for uncrewed combat aircraft, which the PLAN is already testing.

In short, the Fujian moves China from a defensive, anti-access navy to an offensive, expeditionary one. Its reach is now regional at minimum and potentially global once nuclear propulsion arrives with the next generation, CV 19 or 004.

Naming as message

Naming the ship after Fujian Province, directly across the Taiwan Strait, was no accident. The symbolism is layered: a nod to industrial pride, geographic warning, and political continuity. As one Chinese analyst put it, “Our third carrier is named for the frontline of reunification.” The message to Washington and Taipei is unambiguous.

Comparisons and contradictions

The USS Gerald R. Ford remains larger, with a 100 000-ton displacement and a planned complement of seventy-six aircraft. Yet the Fujian has matched the Ford in launch technology and build speed while avoiding many of its cost overruns. Where American shipyards are hampered by labour shortages and congressional micromanagement, Chinese yards in Jiangnan and Dalian operate with military precision and state backing.

The U.S. still enjoys the advantage of nuclear propulsion, carrier-aviation experience, and global logistics. But the gap is narrowing, and in the Western Pacific, geography tilts the balance. The PLAN operates close to its coastline and under land-based missile cover. The U.S. Navy must sail halfway around the world under constant surveillance.

What this means for the balance of power

For seventy years, carrier dominance defined the American order. It allowed Washington to project power from Korea to Libya, to intimidate and to deter. The Fujian’s commissioning signals that this unipolar naval era is over.

In capability terms, China is still catching up. In industrial and strategic terms, it has already arrived. The U.S. may field more carriers, but China builds them faster and aligns them to a continental strategy that fuses shipbuilding, missile cover, and economic reach.

As one Western naval planner admitted privately, “We used to worry about Chinese missiles sinking our carriers. Now we have to think about Chinese carriers shadowing ours.”

Freedom of navigation, or freedom from it

Washington insists its patrols through the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea are about freedom of navigation. Beijing replies that freedom for one navy cannot mean submission for another. The Fujian is its retort in steel, a demonstration that China can now enforce its own interpretation of maritime order.

Whether that brings stability or confrontation depends on what follows: professionalism at sea, or nationalism ashore. But the balance of perception has changed. The PLAN no longer needs to prove it can build carriers. It has to prove it can use them wisely.

The bottom line

The Fujian is more than a ship. It is a statement that China’s naval modernisation is not a dream but an accomplished fact. The United States sails for posture. China sails for parity and permanence.

The Fujian does not answer “freedom of navigation.” It rewrites it.

Because when you can build it, launch it, crew it, and sustain it, you do not follow the tempo. You set it.