(correct data on island distribution in paragraph 12)
By Ryan Wu and Xiuhao Chen
BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – China unveiled in a video an aircraft carrier that could become its fourth, and the first to use nuclear power, as it vows to build up more of its islands to bolster sea power, secure resources and territorial claims.
The video, released on the eve of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s 77th founding day, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones for the three commissioned aircraft carriers, Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian.
Titled “Into the Deep”, it shows a 19-year-old named “He Jian” joining the group, debunking speculation that it refers to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the naval recruit’s name being a homophone of “nuclear vessel” in Mandarin.
The three aircraft carriers now in service are all conventionally powered, bearing serial pennant numbers 16, 17, and 18. The new recruit’s age, 19, suggests “He Jian” will conform to the numbering convention.
China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Wednesday’s video.
Beijing is spending billions of dollars to build a “bluewater navy” that would allow it to project power far from its shores, a goal since 2012 when President Xi Jinping became leader of the ruling Communist Party.
Action sequences in the video show military exercises and strikes in the Pacific. But it also sent a message to democratically-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, although Taipei denies the claim.
The video showed an exchange between a naval officer and his son “Xiao Wan”, the latter’s name being an allusion to Taiwan.
“I don’t want to go home yet. I want to play some more,” says the boy.
His father replies, “Ziao Wan, don’t be difficult. Mother is waiting for you at home. Let’s go home.”
Island build-up
In an article published in the official People’s Daily, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources called for more efforts to “conserve” the more than 11,000 islands claimed by China.
Most of these are located within 100 kilometers (62 mi) of the coast, with about 60% in the East China Sea, about 30% in the South China Sea and the rest in the Bohai and Yellow Seas, official Chinese statistics showed in 2018.
China has built artificial islands, airstrips and military facilities in disputed waters of the South China Sea over the years in extensive land reclamation efforts.
Last September, Beijing declared a national nature reserve on the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a long-standing flashpoint with the Philippines to confirm its claim to the atoll.
“Facilities on its artificial island bases allow Chinese law enforcement, navy and militia vessels to patrol its neighbors’ waters up to 1,000 nautical miles from the Chinese coast every day of the year,” said Gregory Poling of the CSIS think tank.
But China’s presence in the busy waterway did not deter a senior Taiwanese official from making a rare visit to the Taiwan-held island of Itu Aba, part of the disputed Spratly Islands.
Itu Aba has a runway long enough to allow military resupply flights from Taiwan, while a new wharf opening in 2023 could host a 4,000-ton patrol vessel.
The Philippines, the United States and partner nations this week began military exercises, including maritime operations, in the Philippine archipelago.
The exercises launched a multinational front against China in a region that is a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce.
“Beijing appears to have reached a point of diminishing returns,” said Polling, head of the think tank’s Southeast Asia program.
“It has not managed to stop a single Southeast Asian energy project, resupply or construction mission, or similar in at least four years.”
(Reporting by Ryan Wu and Jiuhao Chen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
