By: Explained DeskNew Delhi | Updated: November 8, 2025 05:41 PM IST 1 min readChinese aircraft carrier Fujian. (AP)After extensive trials, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has officially inducted Fujian, China’s third aircraft carrier, and its most advanced one yet. China President Xi Jinping boarded Fujian for an inspection tour in the city of Sanya in southern Hainan province on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.For the world’s largest navy, Fujian is a significant force multiplier, one that will allow the PLAN to project power far beyond Chinese shores. Here are 3 things you need to know.01Uses electromagnetic catapultsTaking off from the limited space of an aircraft carrier is no mean feat. With the exception of aircraft capable of vertical takeoff (like the Harrier jump jet or the more modern F-35B), most need some assistance to take to the skies.The two older Chinese carriers, Russia-designed Liaoning and Shandong, as well as the two Indian carriers currently in service, relied on ramps to launch aircraft. Although cheaper and easier to operate, carriers in this configuration can only launch lighter aircraft with smaller payloads.To fling heavier aircraft into the sky, an extra push is needed: one that can be provided by catapults. These complex systems are expensive to build and maintain, but the added acceleration from the catapults boosts operational flexibility.Fujian is the first Chinese carrier, and the 13th carrier currently in service (after 11 American carriers and one French carrier), to use this technology. Fujian is also only the second carrier after the USS Gerald R Ford to use electromagnetic catapults; the old Nimitz class carriers and the French carrier Charles de Gaulle use steam catapults.Chinese state media claims that Xi had personally made the decision to adopt electromagnetic catapult technology.02Still no match for American carriersThe US undoubtedly has the strongest carrier fleet on the planet. Its fleet of 11 carriers would be larger than a combined fleet of all other aircraft carriers in the world (China now has three carriers, India, the UK and Italy have two each, and France, Russia and Spain one each).Moreover, every American carrier is larger and more capable than every other carrier in the world — including Fujian. For one, unlike the American carriers and the (much smaller) Charles de Gaulle, Fujian is not nuclear-operated, fundamentally limiting its range.Furthermore, its fight deck is not nearly as large and optimally designed as the American carriers.“The Fujian’s operational capability is only about 60% of that of the Nimitz class,” Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain who served on two US aircraft carriers, told CNN. In simple terms, for every 10 aircraft that the American carriers can launch, the Chinese Fujian can only launch six carriers. And the Nimitz class is 50 years old.Yet, with a displacement of 80,000 tonnes, the Fujian is the closest thing afloat to American carriers in the world, comparable in size to the British carriers but more capable due to its catapult system. Regardless of its capabilities, the carrier will play a key role in domestic propaganda and power projection.03Named after Taiwan-facing provinceExperts expect Fujian to be deployed around Taiwan. That the carrier is named after the southeastern province overlooking the Taiwan strait is likely no coincidence. In recent years, Beijing has been turning up the heat on Taipei; Xi has personally pledged “reunification”, by force if necessary.Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is a tiny island off the east coast of China where Chinese republicans of the Kuomintang government retreated after the 1949 victory of the Mao Zedong-led communists. Since then, both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (RoC), have functioned as sovereign states.Since it was founded in 1949, the PRC has believed that Taiwan must be reunified with the mainland; meanwhile the RoC has held out as an independent country. In recent years, the reunification rhetoric has ramped up significantly under Xi.In this context, the name Fujian for an aircraft carrier sends a clear message, even if its role in Taiwan conflict scenarios is up for debate.As Collin Koh of Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies told Reuters: “This is potentially a game changer for China but there are a lot of capabilities here they’ve still got to test and finesse - and that includes quite how they would best deploy it in a Taiwan conflict”.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd