While india is busy burning trains and buses over army recruitment scheme china quietly rolls out a new aircraft carrier that wows west

While india is busy burning trains and buses over army recruitment scheme china quietly rolls out a new aircraft carrier that wows west

China unveiled its first homemade aircraft carrier on Friday, causing much envy/wonderment/kerfuffle in strategic circles/world capitals, notably in Washington DC. That Beijing was building an indigenous carrier was no secret. US spooks and eyes-in-the-sky had been poring over satellite imagery of Fujian, as the new carrier is called, for months, trying to discern or divine what the Chinese are up to. Well, their wait is over. With much pomp and ceremony, Beijing simply rolled it off the shipyard it was being built in and let the world have a good look at it.

It immediately invoked comparisons to the USS Gerald R. Ford, the United States’ most advanced aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 2017. Much attention centered on the carrier’s electromagnetic launch system which can catapult a plane into action, rather than the ski jump-style system used in older carriers. One can detect a degree of disbelief and envy in the western commentariat that the Chinese have been able to master this technology so quickly, something that was also expressed when China unveiled its hypersonic missiles.

So China, with three, now has the most aircraft carriers after the US with eleven. Britain and Italy have two each and Russia, France, Brazil, Spain, and Thailand, have one each. Yeah, Thailand. You gotta wonder.

Meanwhile, what of India? Of course, we have one too, and talk of many more. Currently, there is the INS Vikramaditya, which is a Russian-origin platform, but our own indigenously-built, atmanirbharta-powered INS Vikrant is expected to be commissioned later this year — that is, if we don’t take time off to burn some trains and buses, and generally go ape over the new army recruitment scheme or something else that agitates our testosterone-driven youth.

Also just to show that were are very much in the loop/know of things etc, we also have new aircraft carrier INS Vishal on the drawing board, with all the bells and whistles Fujian and Ford boast of, including the electromagnetic launch system, plus more. Hell, if you give our mythology-addled maestros a few days, they will also dig out documents to show that the Cholas and Hoysalas had that electromagnetic thingamajig, while our whatsapp graduates will make crude jokes about Chinese goods (Fujian sounds like a Punjabi town, yaar!) when they are not expressing impotent rage ( “they can only do it because they are not a democracy; we are constrained by democracy). When all else fails, they can pull out the old lemon: Arre, we invented zero!

On a more serious (and deadly note), the Chinese naming the carrier Fujian appears to be a shot across the bow of Taiwan and its patron and purported protector, the United States. Fujian is the province across from Taiwan. Yet, Chinese officials have modestly claimed that the ship would not be battle-ready for five years, but it is an important step in Beijing’s ambition to develop a “blue water” navy, capable of projecting power beyond its shores. Yeah, five years. Mark that down. Knowing the Chinese propensity of quick knock-offs and speed-build, they may have many more carriers by then.

All in tune with what Deng Xiaoping said: Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership.