Chinese Navy New Aircraft Carrier Underlines Rationale For Aukus Pact

World’s largest navy and the largest shipbuilding industry

- Dan Sabbagh

In the dockyards of Shanghai, the next step in China’s naval expansion is taking shape: a 315-metre aircraft carrier whose construction progress was revealed by satellite photography in May . China has the world’s largest navy and the largest shipbuilding industry, but the Type 003 is the latest step up: a vessel the same size as the new US Ford class with a matching electromagnetic catapult for launching jets.

It forms part of Beijing’s attempts to push back the US navy in the western Pacific beyond the first island chain that runs south of Japan, between Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea – the reason Washington wants to draw Australia and Britain into the region and the Aukus defence pact.

“China has been building a capacity over the last two decades to deny the US significant freedom of action in the western Pacific,” said Sidharth Kaushal , a research fellow at the Rusi think tank. That started with long-range anti-ship missiles, but as the satellite images obtained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of the new aircraft carrier emphasise, there is a growing naval capacity.

“It has reached the point where the US is only viable because it has allies in the region,” said Kaushal.