FILE PHOTO: Visitors look at replicas of aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong, displayed at the PLA Naval Museum on the 75th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, in Qingdao, Shandong province, China April 23, 2024. REUTERS\/Florence Lo\/File Photo<\/p>\n
China Teases New Aircraft Carrier in Video, Vows to Build Up Islands<\/p>\n
By Ryan Woo and Xiuhao Chen<\/p>\n
BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0China teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims.<\/p>\n
The video issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian.<\/p>\n
Titled \u201cInto the Deep,\u201d it showed a 19-year-old named \u201cHe Jian\u201d joining the group, unleashing public speculation that it was referring to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, as the navy recruit\u2019s name is a homophone of \u201cnuclear vessel\u201d in Mandarin.<\/p>\n
The three aircraft carriers now in service are all conventionally powered, carrying sequential pennant numbers 16, 17, and 18. The new recruit\u2019s age, 19, suggests \u201cHe Jian\u201d will conform to the numbering convention.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s defense ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Wednesday\u2019s video.<\/p>\n
Beijing is spending billions of dollars to build a \u201cbluewater navy\u201d allowing it to project power far from its shores, a goal dating from 2012, when President Xi Jinping became leader of the ruling Communist Party.<\/p>\n
Action sequences in the video featured military drills and strikes in the Pacific. But it also sent a message to democratically-governed Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, despite Taipei\u2019s rejection of the claim.<\/p>\n
The video showed an exchange between a naval officer and his son \u201cXiao Wan,\u201d the latter\u2019s name an allusion to Taiwan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to go home just yet. I want to play out a little longer,\u201d the boy says.<\/p>\n
His father responds, \u201cXiao Wan, don\u2019t be difficult. Mum is waiting for you at home. Let\u2019s go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
China\u2019s natural resources ministry, in an article published in the official People\u2019s Daily, urged greater efforts to \u201cprotect\u201d the more than 11,000 islands China claims.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of these are located within 100 km (62 miles) of the coast, with nearly 60% in the East China Sea and the rest in the South China Sea, an official tally showed in 2018.<\/p>\n
China has built artificial islands, airstrips, and military facilities during extensive land reclamation efforts over the years in disputed waters in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
Last September, Beijing declared a<\/p>\n
national nature reserve<\/p>\n
at the disputed Scarborough Shoal to assert its claim to the atoll, a long-time flashpoint with the Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facilities on its artificial island bases have allowed Chinese law enforcement, naval, and militia vessels to spend every day of the year patrolling the waters of its neighbors up to 1,000 nautical miles from the Chinese coastline,\u201d said Gregory Poling of the CSIS think tank.<\/p>\n
But China\u2019s presence in the busy waterway did not deter a senior Taiwan official from a\u00a0?rare visit\u00a0to the Taiwan-controlled island of Itu Aba, part of the contested Spratly Islands.<\/p>\n
Itu Aba has a runway long enough to allow military re-supply flights from Taiwan, while a new wharf opened in 2023 can host a 4,000-ton patrol ship.<\/p>\n
The Philippines, the United States and partner nations started military drills this week, including maritime operations, across the Philippine archipelago.<\/p>\n
The exercises projected a multinational front against China in a region that is a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeijing seems to have hit a point of diminished returns,\u201d said Poling, who heads the think tank\u2019s Southeast Asia program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has not succeeded in stopping a single Southeast Asian energy project, resupply or construction mission, or the like, in at least four years.\u201d<\/p>\n