Seoul, Korea
CNN
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Over the past month, strike groups of Chinese aircraft airlines have been operating further from their local coasts, testing cutting edge technologies with stronger strength than ever before and sending messages that are the forces they should consider, analysts and officials say.
Since early May, the Airline-led PLA Navy (Planned) Fleet has been conducting exercises in the northern Philippines. Its latest airline, Fujian, soon to be commissioned, is on sea trial in the contested waters west of the Korean Peninsula. And its oldest airline, Leaon, has led exercises in the Pacific waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
During the drill, Fujian Province was the first to carry out aircraft takeoff and landing operations at sea using an advanced electromagnetic catercult system (EMALS), local defense officials said.
It is an important development. Only one other airline in the world has that system. It is USS Gerald R Ford, the US Navy’s latest airline.
Last Monday, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said Shandong Province and its support vessels were campaigning in the southeastern waters of Miyakojima, southern Okinawa prefecture, and were attacked by the Pacific Ocean, where two Chinese airlines first opened.
At the heart of the box is Taiwan. Taiwan is a democratically controlled island, claimed by the Chinese Communist Party, despite it not being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to “achieving unity” with the island, using force when necessary.
Analysts said the Pacific exercise will be specifically targeted in cases of conflict, where US Navy support must be passed on time.
Taiwanese security officials told CNN during May that the plan regularly deployed around 70 warships and coast guard vessels in the waters of the first island chain, from the Bo Hai Sea and Yellow Sea to the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea.
“The prediction of power exceeds China’s own defensive needs,” Taiwanese officials said, unless they wish to argue that the entire first island chain is within it.
The first island chain extends from Japan to the Philippines and extends further to Indonesia, as seen as a strategically important boundary for both China and the US.
Some analysts say Beijing may be laying its foundations with so-called “salami slices” tactics or promoting its claim and presence with small but merciless steps until the opponent is too late to stop them.
In addition to Taiwan, in the sea in the chains of its first island, there is Senkaku Island, which is ruled by Japan, known as the Chinese Futacotyledon, and, like Taiwan, it is claimed to be the territory of sovereignty.
Chinese maritime forces are increasing visibility around these islands. According to statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Defense, over 100 Chinese ships have appeared in adjacent areas of the island (the waters between them) for all but one of the last 24 months.
Also, the chain of the first island in the South China Sea, which saw violent flares between China and the Philippine forces, is the conflict islands of the South China Sea as Beijing actively seeks to assert the geographical features of the waterway through which trillions of dollars pass each year.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses called for Beijing tactics at his recent defense forum in Singapore.
“Unsolicited attempts to change the chains of the first island by forcing or enforcing the status quo in the South China Sea are unacceptable,” Hegses said in a speech at Shangri-La’s dialogue, noting the existence of a permanent PLA around Taiwan in the South China Sea and harassment and threatening tactics.
“It must be clear that Beijing is preparing with confidence that it may use military force to change the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,” Hegses said.
Hegseth focused on Chinese activity within the first island chain, but the recent moves of the PLA Navy operate across the second island chain, ranging from southeastern Japan’s major islands to the US territories in Saipan and Guam, and from Yap, Palau and New Guinea.
Japanese officials reported last week that two Chinese airline groups were working well in Open Pacific.
“It is believed that China is planning to improve the operational capabilities of aircraft carriers and improve the ability to operate in far-flung areas,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s General Bureau Director General, last Monday, that China was the first to demonstrate its ability to operate carriers in the waters east of Iwo Jima.
“The PLA demonstrates the capabilities of sustainable career OPS outside of the First Island chain, which certainly is an important milestone in planning,” said Ray Powell, director of Sealight, a maritime transparent project at Stanford’s National Security Innovation Center.
“Beijing is using this plan to demonstrate its growing maritime power and willingness to use it,” said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and Hawaii-based analyst.
A PLA Navy press release on Tuesday recognized the airline’s activities in the waters to the Pacific, highlighting their defensive oriented.
“The Chinese Navy’s Leaon and Chandon Aircraft carriers have recently traveled to the Western Pacific and other waters to conduct training to test the military’s far-sea defense and joint combat capabilities. This is a daily training.”
Overall, Schuster said China has made a very clear statement in its series of exercises.
“Beijing characterizes these activities as routine training and trials, but its neighbors did not miss the relevant strategic message. China has become the main naval force that can apply its force to water if it chooses,” Schuster said.
Only one other navy, the United States, has the capacity to run two or more career strike groups at such distances.
US Navy airline strike groups are usually made up of carrier plus cruisers and/or destroyers, and have an Aegis missile system to protect the respected assets of the heart.
Analysts said that a group of Chinese airlines in the Pacific have similar formations, including the latest and most powerful surface ships in the program, the large 055 guide missile destroyer, and some of the new but smaller type 052DM destroyers.
With a displacement of approximately 12,000 tons, Type 055 is considered by many naval analysts to be the center of the world’s largest naval forces, the title taken from the US Navy around 2020, and the center of the world’s largest naval forces today.
A report from the National Global Times on Tuesday said the plan could be considering running a strike group of carriers in all oceans around the world, like the US Navy.
China’s military affairs expert Zhang Jun-she told the tabloids that Beijing’s growing overseas business and cultural interests justify the expansion of the naval forces, including the capabilities of operators far from China’s coast.
According to Zhang, new airline training may be seen in Indian and Atlantic waters.
China’s latest aircraft carrier, Fujian, could be crucial in the PLA Navy’s plans to operate well in the Pacific or other oceans.
It is estimated to replace 80,000 tonnes, and is considered the largest non-American warship ever built, allowing a fleet of 40 aircraft to be carried from 40 aircraft in Leaon and Shandong.
According to South Korean defense officials, Fujian Province conducted aircraft takeoff and landing operations at a marine trial in the Yellow Sea last month.
The trial was marked first when Chinese airlines agreed to oversee both fisheries management, but carried out such activities within the Interim Measurement Zone (PMZ), a disputed area where friction between Beijing and Seoul continues.
The presence of Fujian Province in the PMZ was reported by Chosun Ilbo of South Korea and later confirmed by CNN by Korean officials.
Takeoff and landing operations are important as Fujian marks the first time he does it in the sea using its electromagnetic catapult system.
The system allows carrier aircraft to take off with heavier weapons and fuel loads than those operating Shandong and Liaoning, which feature Ski-Jump-type takeoff ramps, allowing Fujian aircraft to attack enemy targets far away.
Fujian is expected to carry a naval version of the J-35, a twin-engine stealth fighter jet that cannot operate older Chinese airlines.
And China is building another airline. It is now known as Type 004. This is not only expected to be EMALS technology, but also unlike Fujian and USS Ford, which is expected to carry a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear power greatly expands the scope of China’s naval fleet. This is because there is no need to refuel the carrier, allowing them to stay far away from the refill tanker in the ocean.
“Beijing’s career program, like its fleet, is rapidly expanding and improving with new aircraft as well as new ships. That trend shows Beijing’s maritime intentions.”
However, even with new equipment and expanded scope, analysts have expressed caution to overestimating the PLA Navy’s capabilities.
China has been at the start of its learning curve compared to the US, which has operated a group of carrier attacks in far-flung waters for decades.
“At this stage, Chinese airlines are still very developed, and even so, China is closing the gap,” said Powell, a Sealight analyst.
CNN’s Eric Cheung, Gawon Bae, Yoonjung Seo and Yumi Asada contributed to this report.