
China's aircraft carriers push into waters long dominated by US
Guam is part of what is called the 'second island chain,' which stretches from Tokyo to south of Palau.
The Chinese naval activities near or past the second island chain signal that US forces 'operating in the vicinity of Guam could be at greater risk', Sharman said.
'These aircraft carrier operations are a harbinger of what is to come,' said Sharman, a former US Navy attache in Beijing.
China 'wants its carriers to be capable of operating independently at remote locations from the mainland, in both peacetime and wartime,' he said.
'That means training for longer periods of time and at increasing distances from China.'
China's Navy said last month that the two carriers and accompanying warships were practicing 'far-sea defence and joint operations'.
The two carrier groups also squared off against each other in a simulated confrontation, said Xinhua, China's official news agency.
Some jet fighters that took off from the carriers flew perilously close to Japanese surveillance aircraft, Japan's Defence Ministry said.
The exercises were not just for show.
Operating aircraft from carriers is demanding and risky, Sharman said.
By training far out in the Pacific, the carriers and accompanying vessels gained 'valuable operating experience in unfamiliar waters, thereby providing the crew with skills that are applicable to future operations elsewhere in the world', he said.
In the coming years, China may deploy aircraft carriers and accompanying naval vessels to bolster its claims in the South China Sea or in territorial disputes with South Korea or Japan.
China could also send carriers to more distant parts of the world as a show of force to defend its economic and security interests.
China has only one significant overseas military base, in Djibouti, but carriers give it 'the option of carrying out myriad aviation missions anywhere its navy sails', said Timothy Heath, a senior researcher at Rand, an organisation that provides analysis for the Pentagon and other clients.
'The most important routes are those to the Middle East along the Indian Ocean.'
Still, the carriers are not a guarantee of Chinese regional maritime dominance.
In a toe-to-toe confrontation between China and the US, each side's carriers could be vulnerable to the other's torpedoes or missiles.
Given those risks, carriers may play a limited role, at least initially, in any potential clash over Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as its territory, several military experts said.
And because Taiwan is close to mainland China's coast and its many air bases, the aircraft carriers would not be crucial for trying to dominate the skies in a war over the island, said Oriana Skylar Mastro, a fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University who studies Chinese military strategy.
China could send its carriers farther out into the Pacific to fend off US forces steaming to Taiwan's aid, though the carriers would then be much more exposed to US attacks, Mastro said.
But China could also deploy the carriers as part of an effort to choke Taiwan off from the world.
'Chinese aircraft carriers will be useful in imposing a blockade on Taiwan,' said Narushige Michishita, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo who studies China's military.
'Aircraft carriers can [be used for surveillance over] large areas and put coercive pressure on both military and commercial ships and aircraft.'
China now has three carriers, all running on diesel and generally less advanced than America's 11 nuclear-powered carriers.
By 2040, China may have six carriers, according to US Navy estimates. China appears to be building a fourth carrier, which analysts say may use nuclear power. That would give it far greater range without the need to refuel.
President Xi Jinping appears to have decided that the country must have more carriers, and other big military assets, to cement its position as a global power.
After the two Chinese carriers finished training in the Pacific this month, one of them, the Shandong, docked in Hong Kong, and selected members of the public were allowed to tour the vessel.
'Politically, they are one of the ultimate status symbols for any country,' Heath said of aircraft carriers.
China's enthusiastic publicity about the carrier manoeuvres in the Pacific indicated that its 'leadership highly values the political symbolism of owning such a powerful warship', Heath said.
Decades ago, Chinese leaders had resisted acquiring aircraft carriers, deciding that they were too costly at a time when China's economy was much smaller.
That began to change after 1996, when the US deployed two carrier battle groups to the waters near Taiwan to deter Beijing from further escalating tensions with the island.
China had been firing ballistic missiles near Taiwan's main ports, hoping to scare voters inclined to support President Lee Teng-hui, who Beijing saw as pushing pro-independence policies.
Two years after that crisis, a Chinese businessman bought a rusting, unfinished ex-Soviet carrier that was owned by Ukraine.
China later bought and finished the ship, which debuted in 2012 as its first carrier, called the Liaoning.
These days, budget limits are not such a worry for China's Navy. But its leaders are not rushing headlong into carrier expansion.
The Shandong — China's second carrier and its first built at home — was launched in 2017. The latest, the Fujian, was launched in 2022 and has still not been placed into active service.
The Fujian uses an electromagnetic catapult system to launch aircraft, which is more technically challenging than using a deck with a ski slope-like ramp, but makes it possible to fly heavier, better-armed planes.
'Chinese carrier operations are still in a rudimentary phase,' Michishita said. China, he said, is 'taking a steady step-by-step approach to improve their capabilities'.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Chris Buckley and Marco Hernandez
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

1News
6 hours ago
- 1News
Plane with 49 people crashes over Russia's Far East
The wreckage of a plane that crashed while carrying 49 people has been found in Russia's Far East, local emergency services said today. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said that they had found the plane's 'burning fuselage' but did not provide further details. Forty-three passengers, including five children, as well as six crew members were on board the An-24 passenger plane as it travelled from the city of Blagoveshchensk on the Russian-Chinese border to the town of Tynda, regional Governor Vasily Orlov said. The flight, which was operated by the Siberia-based Angara Airlines, disappeared from radar and lost contact with air traffic controllers several kilometres from Tynda airport.


NZ Herald
11 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Six students drown after falling into slurry-filled tank on field trip
The accident occurred at an ore processing plant in northern China. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. The accident occurred at an ore processing plant in northern China. Six university students drowned on Wednesday after they fell into a tank while on a field trip to an ore processing plant in northern China, Chinese state media reported. The students, who were majoring in mineral processing engineering at Northeastern University in Shenyang, were on a field trip to Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, when the grid plate they were standing on collapsed as they were observing a flotation cell, according to state media. Flotation is a stage in the mining process used to concentrate the minerals. Finely ground minerals are mixed with water in a container called a flotation cell to produce a 'metallurgical pulp' that helps sort the valuable from the unneeded materials. The students fell into the flotation cell, which looks like a large container, about 10.20am. Rescuers scrambled to retrieve them, but the students were pronounced dead. A teacher was also injured in the incident.

1News
3 days ago
- 1News
At least 25 dead after air force training jet crashes into Bangladesh school
A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school in Dhaka, the country's capital, shortly after takeoff on Monday afternoon, killing the pilot and 24 other people, most of whom were students, officials said. The jet crashed and caught fire, leaving another 171 people, mostly students, injured. They were rescued from the school's smouldering two-story building, officials said, many with burns, taken away in helicopters, ambulances, motorised rickshaws and the arms of firefighters and parents. Initially, reports after the crash said 20 people died. Five died of their injuries overnight. Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about two dozen injured remained critical. The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a "technical malfunction" moments after take-off at 1.06pm (local time), and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College, according to a statement from the military. Many relatives waited overnight at a specialised burn hospital for bodies of their loved ones. ADVERTISEMENT Around midnight, Mohammed Abdur Rahim was looking for his cousin Afia Akter in a hospital. 'We could not find my cousin. She is missing. Doctors here have asked us to go to other hospitals,' he told The Associated Press. Students said the school's buildings trembled violently, followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety. A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site, as panicked relatives searched for loved ones. Screams filled the air at a nearby hospital. The Milestone school is in Dhaka's Uttara neighbourhood, which is roughly 11km drive from the AK Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes. Firemen stand next to swing as they work at the site of a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft that crashed into a school campus shortly after takeoff in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Source: Associated Press) The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, made "every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location", the military said, adding that it would investigate the cause of the accident. It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem. The government announced a national day of mourning on Tuesday, with flags to fly at half-staff across the country. ADVERTISEMENT Families mourn loved ones Mosammat Sagorika, who scored four goals on Monday to defeat Nepal in an under 20 women's South Asian soccer championship match, dedicated the country's win to the victims of the jet crash. 'Many people have died, and many are injured. So, we all are sad," the 17-year-old Sagorika told reporters. At the crash site Monday afternoon, a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searched for her older one. Shahbul, father of a missing girl student, cries after a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft that crashed onto a school campus shortly after takeoff in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Source: Associated Press) Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter. "The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was. My wife called me, but I was praying so I could not pick up," Jewel, who goes by one name, said at the scene. "When I came here I saw there was a huge fire. There was a dead body of a child." ADVERTISEMENT Luckily, his daughter was safe, he said, but he saw many other children suffering from burns. Students also scrambled to see what had happened. "We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school,' said Estiak Elahi Khan, who is in the 11th grade. "What I saw I can't describe that... that's terrible." Doctors at Uttara Adhunik Hospital said more than 60 students, many between the ages of 12 and 16, were transferred to a special hospital for burn victims. Summary: The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including death of a The Cosby Show actor, vape product recalled, and how working less makes us feel better. (Source: Breakfast) By Monday evening, rescuers continued to scour the debris, searching for bodies. A crane was being used to remove debris. Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also pledged an investigation, and he expressed his deep sorrow over the "heart-breaking accident". He called it "a moment of deep national grief". Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed shock and sadness. "Our hearts go out to the bereaved families," Modi said in a post on X. "India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance." Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, said by phone that the school, with some 2000 students, offers classes from elementary grades through high school. "I was terrified watching videos on TV," the 16-year-old said. "My God! It's my school."