China’s flashy aircraft carriers are no threat to U.S. national security

In late September, the Chinese navy made public the remarkable tests of its new Fujian aircraft carrier, sparking alarm that Beijing had drawn even with or even ahead of the U.S. Navy in the key technology of electromagnetic (EMG) catapults.

Such rapid progress has sent some quarters of Washington into a panic. However, the fundamentals of the military balance in the Asia-Pacific are stable and continue to favor the U.S. by a fair margin. China’s aircraft carriers are glamorous, to be sure, but they wouldn’t be especially useful in the region’s biggest potential flashpoint: a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Nor do they pose a threat to U.S. national security.

The Fujian launched not one but three new types of aircraft from its EMG catapults. That’s a startling technological accomplishment, given that the U.S. Navy is the only other force in the world that operates EMG catapults. The U.S. version has proven somewhat disappointing so far in that it cannot yet launch the U.S. Navy’s F-35C, which is hoped to be the standard carrier-based fighter in coming decades.

Read at Stars and Stripes

Author

Lyle
Goldstein

Director, Asia Program

Defense Priorities