China's already in operation Type 002 aircraft carrier of People's Liberation Army Navy. Photo by Tyg728, via Wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0/CC BY-SA 4.0
by Captain John Konrad (gCaptain) In an unprecedented display of naval power, China has deployed three aircraft carriers at sea simultaneously for the first time. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has reached a new milestone, showcasing its rapidly expanding naval capabilities and its ambitions to project power far beyond its shores. This comes just one month after China deployed three icebreakers to the Arctic and a week after China and Russia deployed over 400 warships and 120 aircraft in mission exercise Operation Ocean 2024.
The Liaoning and Shandong, both established assets of the Chinese fleet, were joined by the Fujian, China’s third and largest carrier and PLAN’s first domestically designed and built. Though still in sea trials, the Fujian’s presence signals a significant step forward in China’s naval aviation program.
This development is important because the People’s Republic of China faced significant challenges in developing a modern navy due to several key factors. Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both of which prioritized ideology over scientific and industrial progress, severely hampered development. The military’s budgetary focus on aircraft and nuclear weapons further diverted resources from naval expansion. Additionally, the Sino-Soviet split resulted in the loss of vital technical assistance from the Soviet Union, compounding the difficulties China encountered in modernizing its naval capabilities.
This dynamic shifted dramatically in the 21st century. Driven largely by China’s newfound wealth and its desire to assert control over regional waters—particularly in the South China Sea, where it claims vast areas demarcated by the controversial “nine-dash line”—China rapidly plugged strategic holes and expanded both the capacity and capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Economic reforms and rapid industrial growth enabled significant investment in PLAN’s modernization, an effort that has accelerated in the past decade. With the rapid development of indigenous shipbuilding, cutting-edge military technology, and a focus on blue-water operations, China has transformed its navy into a global force. This naval expansion is directly tied to Beijing’s broader strategic goals: securing maritime dominance, protecting key trade routes, and enforcing its territorial claims in the South China Sea—actions that have fueled regional tensions.
“The People’s Liberation Army Navy PLA(N) has increased its focus on developing blue-water naval capabilities,” warned the US Office of Naval Intelligence as far back as 2015. “Over the long term, Beijing aspires to expand naval missions far from China’s shores.”
China now commands the world’s largest maritime force, with 234 warships compared to the U.S. Navy’s 219. This count includes all known active-duty ships over 1,000 metric tons but excludes small missile-armed patrol boats, unlike the U.S. Navy’s count, which includes logistics and support vessels. China’s numerical advantage provides a key wartime edge, as historically, larger fleets win conflicts. In recent wargames, China lost 52 major warships to the U.S.’s 7-20, yet still had more remaining ships to continue the battle. While the U.S. retains an edge in guided-missile cruisers and destroyers, which are critical for sea control, China is rapidly closing the gap. The PLAN has doubled its destroyer fleet since 2003, and launched more destroyers and cruisers in recent years than the U.S., signaling a shift in naval power dynamics.
China’s shipbuilding dominance is clear when comparing the ages of its warships to those of the U.S. Navy. Approximately 70% of Chinese warships have been launched since 2010, while only 25% of U.S. Navy ships are that new. Some not that People’s Liberation Army Navy warships are inferior but their quality is increasing. China’s shipbuilding capacity – estimates up to 232 times greater than America’s shipyards – far outpaces the United States, with numerous commercial shipyards larger and more productive than any in the United States. In the event of a prolonged conflict, China’s shipbuilding industry would offer a significant strategic advantage, allowing for faster repairs and ship replacements, while the U.S. grapples with maintenance backlogs, limited ship construction capabilities, diminished salvage capabilities and a serious shortage of logisitics ships and Merchant Mariners to crew them.
“China’s rapid military buildup has left the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) poised to overtake the U.S. Navy in several measures of maritime might more quickly than sometimes assumed,” wrote by Alexander Palmer in a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report published in June. “The result is a China that will grow more confident projecting power, threatening its less powerful neighbors, and disregarding U.S. efforts to deter such behavior.”
Last week, satellite imagery confirmed all three carriers were operational at sea. The Liaoning was spotted in the Philippine Sea, the Shandong off Hainan Island, and the Fujian undergoing trials near Shanghai. Each carrier group was flanked by an array of destroyers, frigates, and support vessels, reinforcing the PLAN’s growing ability to conduct coordinated, complex operations across multiple theaters.
China’s two operational carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, have frequently been deployed together, but the addition of the Fujian hints at the PLAN’s plans for more routine multi-carrier operations. This summer alone saw three such deployments, emphasizing the growing normalization of China’s carrier presence in the Western Pacific.
China’s carrier operations extend beyond mere display. The Liaoning’s recent maneuvers near Taiwan and through Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture send a clear message to regional powers. The ability to operate carriers east of Taiwan provides the PLA with another vector to strike and blockade the island, should conflict arise.
This aggressive stance has not gone unnoticed. Taiwan’s Minister of Defense, Wellington Koo, warned of the increased difficulty in distinguishing between Chinese military exercises and potential offensive operations, heightening the island’s state of alert.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy’s USS Theodore Roosevelt returned to the South China Sea, after deploying to the middle east and temporarily leaving no United States carriers in the Western Pacific underscoring the growing competition in these strategic waters.
Adding another layer to this strategic puzzle, China and Russia recently conducted Ocean 2024, a massive mission-oriented join-naval exercise in the Pacific, Arctic, Mediterranean, Caspian, and Baltic seas. Over 400 warships and 120 aircraft participated, demonstrating a united front aimed squarely at challenging Western naval dominance.
During these exercises, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracked Russian Armed Forces aircraft, including Tu-142s and IL-38s, entering the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). While NORAD downplayed the events as routine, this pattern of behavior suggests a growing willingness by Russia to test U.S. defenses and assert its presence in the Pacific.
By working jointly with the Russian Navy, PLAN gets access to more naval bases, including in the Arctic, more intelligence and closely guarded secrets like how Russian submarines are so quiet. “Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy warships are increasingly technologically proficient. What’s more, they are designed with the specific intention of overwhelming U.S. warships with superior firepower,” wrote Brandon Weichert in a recent National Interest cover story. “Further, the Ukraine War, which has alienated both China and Russia from the West and sent the two countries into a warm embrace.”
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China continues to push ahead with the rapid expansion of its Arctic-capable fleet. For the first time it dispatched three icebreakers into the Arctic this summer.
The U.S., meanwhile, will remain without surface presence in the Arctic for the remainder of the year, possibly longer. Following last month’s fire aboard Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy the vessel had to abort its Arctic patrol returning back to its homeport Seattle on a single engine. The only other icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star, remains currently dry docked in an attempt to squeeze a few more years of service life out of the 55-year old vessel.
China’s largest and most capable icebreaking research vessel, Xue Long 2, departed for a months-long expedition in early July. Comparable in size and capability to Healy, the vessel passed through the Bering Strait weeks later and spent more than two weeks in the waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas to the north of Alaska, before continuing its voyage into the Central Arctic Ocean.
The smaller Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, an icebreaker operated by Sun Yat-sen University, set sail on a similar path at the end of July. It currently sits 200 nautical miles from Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, in the Beaufort Sea.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier Fujian’s full commissioning, expected as early as 2026, will further solidify China’s position as a global naval power, expanding China’s capability to project power and launch drone operations.
Despite being outnumbered and outclassed by the U.S. Navy’s fleet of 11 nuclear-powered supercarriers, China’s growing carrier force and its integration into broader regional and global military strategies cannot be ignored. As the People’s Liberation Army Navy continues to mature, the Western Pacific will witness a more assertive and capable Chinese naval force, reshaping the balance of power in the region and beyond.
China’s naval capabilities shouldn’t be overhyped, and social media posts with clickbait questions like “Who would win in a naval battle: the WWII Imperial Japanese Navy or today’s People’s Liberation Army Navy?” or “Is China’s Navy more powerful than the Royal Navy at its peak?” make for interesting debates for social media navalists on x, ultimately they are just that—clickbait. However, large-scale joint exercises involving China and Russia, featuring 400 ships, are a serious event that NATO and Pentagon-aligned navies will be monitoring closely to gauge strengths and weaknesses. This is particularly good news for Navy intelligence officers and security analysts in D.C., as while ship numbers and weapons systems matter, the real test lies in how well People’s Liberation Army Navy officers and sailors perform in real-world scenarios—especially in harsh environments like the Arctic.
These displays of strength by the People’s Liberation Army Navy may stir fear online, but they also provide crucial insights into the PLAN’s actual ability to wage a major war. More importantly, they help the Pentagon evaluate how to counter future naval aggressions effectively.
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