At the beginning of May, the “Fujian”, the third aircraft carrier of the Chinese People’s Navy (PLAN), left the outfitting pier of the Jiangnan shipyard north of Shanghai via the Yangtze River for its first sea trials in the East China Sea. The government is attempting to deal with the proliferation of images of the carrier published by civilians with threats of prison sentences.
In contrast to the country’s first two carriers based on former Soviet concepts (CV16 “Liaoning” and CV17 “Shandong”), the CV18 “Fujian” is a new development that relies on catapults instead of a launch pad. As with the arrestor cable system and its deceleration, these are electromagnetic systems (EMALS), as used on the latest US carrier CVN78 “USS Gerald Ford”. However, in contrast to the “USS Gerald Ford”, the “Fujian” was completed in “only” six years, three years faster. Launching and naming ceremony were on June 17, 2022.
However, unlike the US carriers, the “Fujian” is not a nuclear-powered ship, which greatly reduces its radius and deployment time in comparison. However, due to the electromagnetic key systems, the ship must still have an extremely powerful electrical system. The fourth Chinese aircraft carrier, which is already under construction, will then be equipped with a nuclear propulsion system. By 2035, the Chinese navy wants to have six carriers at its disposal to protect its self-defined “zones of influence”, which extend over 1,000 kilometers into the South China Sea as far as Japan and Guam, as well as its vital sea and supply routes. The renegade island of Taiwan claimed by Beijing also lies within this area. In combination with thousands of sea-based missiles (including hypersonic and ballistic missiles), the main adversary, the US Navyis to be kept as far away from Chinese territory as possible.
The flat flight deck of the “Fujian” has three EMALS catapults, two elevators (all on the side of the superstructure) and four arrestor cables. Based on the photos available so far, the length is estimated at 316 meters and the maximum width at 76 meters. The displacement is likely to be in the region of just under 80,000 tons. By comparison, the “USS Gerald Ford” is somewhat larger with a length of 337 meters and a width of 78 meters, even with its displacement of 100,000 tons. Nevertheless, the “Fujian” represents a considerable leap in performance for the PLAN, even if the on-board air wing is far smaller than that of the Americans.
New aircraft types
The first two carriers are primarily equipped with the J-15 fighter aircraft, a navalized version or copy of the Russian Su-27, which also serves as the Su-33 on the only problematic Russian carrier “Kuznetsov”. A prototype that once remained in the Ukraine found its way to China many years ago, on which the J-15 is based. However, it has not yet been able to deploy its full weapon load due to the lack of catapults, and this is now set to change. The prototype for this is the J-15T with a catapult bar on the nose landing gear. In addition, a new stealth aircraft is in the making, called the Shenyang J-35. Three or four exist for the time being, one or two have already been seen as mockups to test the deck shunting procedures on the “Fujian”. Prototypes of the naval early warning aircraft KJ-600, which looks deceptively similar to the US counterpart E-2D Hawkeyes, were also observed during test flights. There were also Z-20 helicopters and JL-10 training jets. J-35 mock-ups have also recently been spotted on the older ramp carriers.
China warns “military fans”: photos could lead to imprisonment
One source for monitoring the construction progress of the “Fujian” – but also other new Chinese defense projects – is the evaluation of open source (OSINT), including hundreds of photos of new People’s Liberation Army equipment per year taken by Chinese amateur military enthusiasts from outside state-owned shipyards and aircraft factories (here during test flights) and subsequently published in various forums and on social media accounts such as WeiBo. These platforms have many millions of active users, but the postings there should not be misunderstood as work for foreign services. The photos are usually shared by patriots who want to document the huge progress their country has made in the arms sector.
However, Western services are also unintentionally benefiting from this, as can be seen from a WeChat warning issued by the Ministry of State Security and the Civilian Domestic Intelligence Service at the end of 2023: “This may be a cool hobby, but you need to be very careful. Individual military enthusiasts are seriously endangering national military security by illegally obtaining national defense information and disseminating it on the Internet. This is done with a focus on military airports, ports, national defense units and military-industrial facilities, which can be secretly accessed by vehicles, from specially boarded ferries, or even from the air with specially procured and equipped drones. Or from civilian aircraft that fly past them on certain routes, always with the help of large telephoto lenses and high-resolution cameras,” the article states.
The “Fujian” in particular, as the latest Chinese achievement, has been a frequent “target” for amateur spotters in recent months. Photographs were made easier by the fact that the Jiangnan shipyard can be seen on the left from aircraft approaching Shanghai/Pudong International Airport. Even the catapult tests in the harbor basin with a red sled were photographed from a landing commercial aircraft and published on WeiBo shortly afterwards. The images were subsequently used by the Paris-based naval specialist publication “Naval News”: “Images taken from passenger aircraft have become a common source for tracking the progress of several major PLAN programs,” the platform said.
Up to seven years in prison
Officials point out that notorious repeat offenders face up to seven years in prison for such recordings, while first-time or occasional offenders are likely to get off with a warning. The domestic and international intelligence and counterintelligence agency only launched its own social media account at the beginning of the year, which warns all Chinese citizens of the risks of exposing military secrets to the outside world and calls on them to join the fight against espionage. Specifically mentioned in this context were the construction of warships or aircraft and the showing of operational and technical details of Chinese military equipment. Aircraft carriers were explicitly mentioned as an area in which national security could be endangered.
In April 2023, the state broadcaster CCTV revealed in a news report that Mr. Luo, a “fairly popular military enthusiast”, was sentenced to one year in prison in November 2021 after being arrested by the National Security Bureau in Shanghai for photographing the new “Fujian” carrier. According to the report, he had used a drone capable of filming high-resolution photos from a great distance.
Also a signal of strength and deterrence
Of course, militaries use open-source intelligence to their advantage, according to Carl Schuster, a former operations director for the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center. He told CNN, however, that given the location of the shipyard, the People’s Liberation Navy was also aware of the likelihood that photos of such a large object (and the details on it) would be taken. The same applies to the Chengdu (CAC) and Shenyang (SAC) aircraft factories or naval base of the Southern Fleet, which is clearly visible from the upscale hotels in Hainan. Of course, it is also possible that photos and recordings are deliberately launched in order to provide the enemy with false information.
