Europe 1 with AFP 08:40, June 17, 2022

China launched Friday its third aircraft carrier called "Fujian", named after a Chinese province, and whose commissioning was to take place in the coming years.

Very advanced technologically and featuring a catapult system, it is the second ship to be entirely manufactured by the country.

China officially launched its third aircraft carrier on Friday, during a ceremony organized on the occasion of the launching of the building in a shipyard in Shanghai, announced the new China agency.

The ship is the second aircraft carrier to be entirely made by China and is far more technologically advanced than its predecessors.

It will only be handed over to the naval forces after several tests at sea.

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New China did not specify the expected date for the entry into service of the building.

But it will not be immediate and should occur in the coming years.

The aircraft carrier was named "Fujian" after a Chinese province, like its predecessors "Liaoning" and "Shandong".

Its launch comes amid heightened Sino-American tensions around Taiwan, the island with a population of 24 million that China considers its historic territory.

Hostile to the United States-Taiwan rapprochement of recent years, the Chinese navy has several times passed its aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait which separates the Chinese mainland from the island territory.

Main development on this third Chinese aircraft carrier compared to the two previous ones: it will be much larger and has a catapult system, according to New China.

An electromagnetic catapult system

Concretely, he will be able to propel the devices in the air thanks to a catapult.

The first Chinese aircraft carriers had only a launch pad.

Advantage of the catapult: the planes can carry a greater reserve of fuel and armament.

The catapult system will be electromagnetic, underlined New China, a state-of-the-art technique.

According to Janes, the reference agency for military information, the United States is by far the first in terms of aircraft carriers currently in service (11), ahead of China (2), the United Kingdom (2), the Russia (1), France (1), Italy (1), India (1) and Thailand (1).

The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012. It mainly served as a training platform.

The accumulated knowledge was then used to build the Shandong, the first aircraft carrier built by China, which entered service at the end of 2019.