The Chinese military is gearing up to unveil its fourth aircraft carrier, marking its first venture into nuclear-powered carriers, as Beijing embarks on a new journey to expand its military prowess to counter regional and international challenges.
Until 2024, only the United States and France had constructed nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Despite the rapid growth of China's aircraft carrier fleet, it remains half the size of the US carrier force in the Pacific.
Reports from state media in Hong Kong suggest that the announcement of China's new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, its first surface ship to be nuclear-powered, is imminent.
This milestone in ship development is key to extending China's military reach globally.
Nuclear power grants aircraft carriers unlimited range, allowing them to sail thousands of miles while only needing to resupply food and ammunition for combat operations.
Vice Admiral Yuan Huazhi of the Chinese Navy told a Hong Kong newspaper that the carrier's announcement is "coming soon," with no technical obstacles or delays in building new carriers.
While not a definitive confirmation, several Chinese media outlets, including the South China Morning Post and Global Times, have interpreted Yuan Huazhi's dialogue as confirmation of the fourth ship's existence.
China currently has three carriers: Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian. Liaoning started as a carrier for the Soviet navy but was unfinished when the Soviet Union collapsed.
It was sold in 1998 to a Hong Kong businessman with the stated intention of turning it into a floating casino but was later transferred to the Chinese navy and commissioned in 2012.
Shandong, launched in 2019, also uses ski-jump ramps and was built from scratch as a test of China's carrier-building capabilities.
Fujian, recently completed, was built without a ski-jump and reportedly uses an electromagnetic aircraft launch system similar to the U.S.'s EMALS.
If China aims to rival the US Navy, it must build a number of nuclear-powered carriers equal to those operated by the US fleet in the Pacific, which includes seven carriers: USS Nimitz, Vinson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, Stennis, and Reagan.
Given that Beijing has yet to build a single nuclear-powered surface ship, Chinese shipyards are likely to remain busy for the next two decades.
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