China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, Fujian, has sailed through the “choppy waters” of the Taiwan Strait. The move comes days after the Chinese Defence Ministry ridiculed the idea that the US and Japanese forces could sink the Chinese carrier in the event of a Taiwan contingency.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence (MND) announced that the Fujian aircraft carrier sailed the Taiwan Strait on December 16—the first such transit after the carrier formally entered service in November 2025.
Taiwan regularly reports all the Chinese military activity, which it attributes to Beijing’s gray-zone tactics against the self-ruled island state.
The MND published a blurred black-and-white image of the carrier without any planes on its deck, adding that it had monitored the carrier’s movements. Notably, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told MPs that the ship was most likely en route to Changxing Island in Shanghai, which is home to China’s principal navy shipbuilding yard, and that the ministry had not seen it engage in any military operations.
China has yet to officially acknowledge the passage at the time of writing this report. However, we understand it may not be a big deal since it considers Taiwan as a renegade province and claims the Taiwan Strait as its sovereign territory. In fact, Beijing has vowed to unite the self-ruled island state of about 24 million people with the Chinese mainland, with force if necessary.
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The Fujian had earlier transited the Taiwan Strait in September 2025 to carry out “scientific research trials and training missions” in the South China Sea. According to reports, the carrier was spotted by a Japanese P-3C aircraft about 200 kilometers northwest of the disputed Senkaku Islands (known as Diaoyu in China).
At the time, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) argued that undertaking cross-regional trials “is a normal part of the aircraft carrier’s construction process”. It is “not directed at any specific target”, a spokesman for the Chinese navy, Leng Guowei, said in a statement.
Nonetheless, the timing of this transit is significant, particularly as it comes amid rising tensions between China and Japan triggered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi’s bold claims about going to war with China over a potential invasion of Taiwan.
The diplomatic storm, which began on November 7, has yet to dial down more than a month later. In fact, the diplomatic standoff, labelled as the worst since the 2012 Senkaku Island Crisis, took an ugly turn on November 27 when a Chinese reporter attending a Chinese Ministry of National Defense press conference raised the claim made by a Japanese media outlet that the JASDF and US forces claim having the capability to sink the Fujian carrier if it engaged in combat in the narrow Taiwan Strait.
Responding to the claims, Jiang Bin, spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, said that “it is nothing but sheer fantasy and an overestimation of one’s own abilities.”
The question purportedly referred to a report in a Japanese publication, The Sankei Shimbun, published on November 7, which appeared immediately after China announced the official commissioning of the carrier and quoted unidentified Japanese officials.
“The PLA has strong capabilities and reliable means to defeat any aggressors. Should the Japanese side dare to cross the red line and invite trouble to itself, it is destined to pay a heavy price,” Jiang Bin told CGTN in an interview.
“In history, a Chinese warship called Chih Yuen was sunk by a Japanese unit during the First Sino-Japanese War more than a century ago. That’s part of a humiliating history for the Chinese. But the Fujian carrier is not Chih Yuen. And history should never repeat. Those who challenge China’s core interests will perish,” the spokesperson said, giving a stern warning to Tokyo.
The Japanese publication emphasised the threat posed by the Chinese underlining that, “By detecting approaching enemy aircraft with an early warning aircraft called “flying radar” and intercepting them by stealth fighters and accompanying destroyers, it is possible to act even in waters away from mainland China. The combat capability of China’s aircraft carrier strike group has been greatly improved, and in case of emergency, it can meet and shoot US troops heading to East Asia in the open ocean.”
The publication then discussed a scenario where China invades Taiwan, ultimately compelling the US military and the JASDF to enter the conflict.
“Within the Japanese government, it is seen that ‘if Fujian is put into service, it must make a different choice from the previous strategy’” (Ministry of Defense officials). If the Chinese army invades Taiwan, it is also expected that the US military and the Self-Defense Forces will have to prioritize the sinking of Fujian to reduce the momentum of the Chinese ships that will attack Taiwan,” it stated.
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China officially inducted Fujian on November 5, 2025, following extensive trials conducted for more than a year. The country is now officially a three-carrier nation operating Fujian, Shandong, and Liaoning.
With Fujian’s induction, China also officially became the second country in the world (behind the United States) to have a flattop with a catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) system featuring electromagnetic catapults (EMALS).
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fighter jets would be able to take off with larger weaponry and fuel loads thanks to this crucial feature. The only carrier equipped with EMALS at the time was the USS Gerald R. Ford
The Fujian aircraft carrier was launched on June 17, 2022, at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai. It underwent extensive sea trials since May 2024.
The state media announced in September 2025 that the J-35 carrier-based stealth fighter, the J-15T, and the KJ-600 AWACS aircraft had completed catapult-launch and arrested-landing tests on the carrier.
The carrier will be able to carry about 50-60 different heavy aircraft, significantly more than the capacity of PLAN’s existing carriers. Moreover, plans call for hosting anti-submarine warfare helicopters and navalized drones aboard the carrier for future combat.
The Fujian is much bigger than the previous Chinese aircraft carriers. In contrast to the Liaoning’s 60,000 tonnes and the Shandong’s 66,000, the Fujian has a displacement of approximately 80,000 tonnes.
In fact, it is much bigger than France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (42,000 tonnes) and the United Kingdom’s HMS Queen Elizabeth (65,000 tonnes). It is smaller than the US Navy’s Ford-class carrier, with a displacement of 100,000 tonnes.
The only disadvantage compared to the US and French carriers is that it is not nuclear-powered.
Last month, while discussing the claim by Japan about sinking Fujian, the Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson also rebuffed claims in the US media that Fujian cannot conduct simultaneous fighter jet takeoffs and landings, and dismissed criticism by former US Navy Captain Carl Schuster, who claimed Fujian’s operational capability is only “about 60%” of the US Nimitz-class carrier.
Schuster and retired Lt. Cmdr. Keith Stewart, a former US naval aviator, noted that the Fujian’s deck layout limits simultaneous takeoffs and landings after examining the photographs of the Fujian’s flight deck.
Schuster told CNN that the angle at which the landing area crosses Fujian’s deck is only 6 degrees off center, compared with 9 degrees on the US carriers, limiting space between the landing strip and the forward two catapults.
However, these assertions were officially rebuffed by the Chinese Defense Ministry, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times. Jiang Bin said Fujian’s combat capability will be demonstrated by facts, and he has no comment on such “sour-grape” claims.
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