CHINA is flexing its naval muscle as it prepares to launch its most advanced aircraft carrier yet, amid fears Beijing is stepping up its plans to invade neighboring Taiwan.
The news of China's new naval firepower comes hours after Taiwan said it deployed fighter jets to warn off 30 Chinese warplanes in Beijing's biggest incursion into Taiwan airspace since January.
China's biggest-ever high-tech Type 003 supercarrier weighs more than 90,000 tonnes and is longer than nine blue whales.
At 320 metres long including the overhang, it is only slightly shorter than the USS Ford, although it is not nuclear-powered.
New satellite images from the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai – where works were delayed by the city's strict Covid lockdown – show the carrier has been designed with the very latest technology.
The Type 003 is said to boast more advanced aircraft-launching technology – known as an electromagnetic catapult system, or EMALS – allowing it to launch the FC-31 new generation of stealth fighters with heavier bomb loads and more fuel.
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This is instead of using the ski ramps normally found on older aircraft carriers, or traditional steam catapults.
This means the Chinese Navy can participate in longer-range operations with the Type 003, which is also much faster and has a larger arsenal of weapons on deck than its existing carriers.
REGIONAL DOMINANCE
The ship is China's third carrier and is part of an attempt to modernise and expand the country's military under a new five-year plan.
Work began on Xi Jinping's latest battleship in 2018, which military analyst Robert Farley claimed will be the "largest and most advanced aircraft carrier built outside the United States".
The Type 003 will not be operational until 2024, according to the Pentagon.
Work on a fourth carrier, which is expected to be nuclear-powered and resemble the new-generation Gerald R Ford-class ships, is already underway, the United States Department of Defense said.
Beijing has been vocal about its ambitions for maritime dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.
US intelligence officials claims China is "working hard" to build up its military ahead of a planned invasion of its smaller neighbour Taiwan in the next few years.
Meanwhile, China has upped the ante recently by conducting almost daily incursions into Taiwanese defensive airspace.
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Taiwan is a democratically governed island, which China sees as its "sacred" territory and China is keen to take control of Taiwan, to ensure a potential unification of the island with mainland China.
The region around the vital South China Sea contains strategic sea lanes and has rich fishing grounds along with trillions of pounds’ worth of oil and gas deposits.
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